I never imagined, during my teenage bird-watching days in the Yorkshire Dales, that I'd see little egrets almost daily in England because at that point I'd never seen one. But that is what has happened during my lifetime. The first large influx of the species was noted in the south of the country in 1989 following a period of northward expansion in France. The first recorded breeding success was in Dorset in 1996. At that time I was noting lone birds on the Lancasire coast in the salt marshes. After I moved to Lincolnshire in 2007 I saw them regularly with the highest count being forty two on The Wash. I even saw the bird on several occasions by the stream and on the willow trees in my garden. When I photographed this bird recently by the tree lined Rudhall Brook in Ross on Wye, Herefordshire, it was one of three in a stretch of one hundred yards of water.
photos © T. Boughen Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2
