Little egret

[bornfree]

Saw a pair of little egret's in a small stream right beside a main road in the village today. First time I've ever seen one.

[Mice!]

I saw one last year i think it was and was amazed, i expected it to be really rare and worth reporting but they are quite common in some ares, it was still a first for me as well.

[old man]

A couple here sometimes.

[team tractor]

6 minutes ago, Mice! said:

I saw one last year i think it was and was amazed, i expected it to be really rare and worth reporting but they are quite common in some ares, it was still a first for me as well.

I’ve seen dozens I think now. Little streams near my shoot .

the first one I spotted I had to question myself. Since then I keep seeing them or it maybe .

[panoma1]

Seen them for some years now on various estuaries from Devon to Scotland.....not really rare now!

50 plus years ago I saw Buzzards in Radnorshire in Wales, very rare then!.........Now they are everywhere! Times change!

[Good shot?]

Saw my first one Sunday last on one of my permissions in Cheshire.

[washerboy]

We have loads around our flood plains, red kites are seen around Leeds and it's only 35 miles away but never seen one on my doorstep 

[marsh man]

51 minutes ago, bornfree said:

Saw a pair of little egret's in a small stream right beside a main road in the village today. First time I've ever seen one.

 

39 minutes ago, Mice! said:

I saw one last year i think it was and was amazed, i expected it to be really rare and worth reporting but they are quite common in some ares, it was still a first for me as well.

It would be a rare day now if we didn't see any , they are everywhere , on the marshes and the estuary  , for the last few years they have been nesting in a wood not far from mine and numbers are building up every year .

Going one better , we have got a Great White Egret on the marsh , I reported it to our local bird watcher and he had already seen it several times and he was saying they are now becoming regular visitors.

You cannot mistake one as they are as big as our Grey Heron and when standing upright they are as tall as a Swan with a long slender neck with a fairly long pointed beak .

[chrisjpainter]

4 minutes ago, marsh man said:

 

It would be a rare day now if we didn't see any , they are everywhere , on the marshes and the estuary  , for the last few years they have been nesting in a wood not far from mine and numbers are building up every year .

Going one better , we have got a Great White Egret on the marsh , I reported it to our local bird watcher and he had already seen it several times and he was saying they are now becoming regular visitors.

You cannot mistake one as they are as big as our Grey Heron and when standing upright they are as tall as a Swan with a long slender neck with a fairly long pointed beak .

Great White Egret, now there's a bird and a half! stunning things.

It's climate change that's driving it - but what we lose in one area, we gain in another! Numbers of the smaller shore waders have decreased over the years, which is a concern as the UK holds globally significant populations of things like knots. But instead, we have more of the bigger stuff, like little egrets great white egrets, spoonbills and more sightings of glossy ibis.

Funny old world.

[marsh man]

4 minutes ago, chrisjpainter said:

Great White Egret, now there's a bird and a half! stunning things.

It's climate change that's driving it - but what we lose in one area, we gain in another! Numbers of the smaller shore waders have decreased over the years, which is a concern as the UK holds globally significant populations of things like knots. But instead, we have more of the bigger stuff, like little egrets great white egrets, spoonbills and more sightings of glossy ibis.

Funny old world.

Your right we are seeing more of the bigger waders , one noticeable one is the Avocet , where we used to see the odd one we are now seeing flocks of then , on a wet day with a big tide up they stick together on the last bit of salting before it is submerged and stand out like a White carpet.

We also get a few escapees off wildfowl collections , Black Swans , Pelicans and Flamingos .

Another bird that is becoming a regular sighting is the Crane , the first ones turned up in Norfolk in 1979 , these were kept quite as they were on a private Broad near Horsey , now they are spread about around the Broad land area .

One night I was down the marsh waiting for geese , it was virtually dark when I saw 4 or 5 large birds coming towards me that at first looked liked geese in the bad light , when they were about 40 yds out they turned and I could see there long legs and a bigger wing span , these were the first Cranes I had seen outside of the Broads area.

[tonker]

We have had 40 or more in the village for the last few years, our village is drained by a Rhyne system so is ideal for them . (start of the Somerset levels).

[islandgun]

Have had one visit at the same time for the last 3 years, October [guessing the same one] stays for a couple weeks.. got me wondering if this is how migrations start. will there be 2 next year, 3 the year after and so on. its a long way to the Outer Hebrides so its hard to believe it is on its way further north ! 

[mudpatten]

Living on the south coast, we were in the vanguard of the little egret invasion. Fast catching up now is the western cattle egret.