Full house

[Frayed Knot]

I’m not sure that global warming is a major factor in the increasing numbers of little egrets.
They were once common here and in the rest of northern Europe but were hunted to local extinction, mostly as a food delicacy, by the mid seventeenth century. Then for the next hundred or so years, throughout southern Europe for their feathers for the fashion industry.
I’m certainly not a climate crisis sceptic but this may just be natural recovery/re colonisation.

 

[Jan Harber]

Egrets are beautiful birds, but as a barometer of global warming perhaps we shouldn’t be so pleased to see them. I remember the first time I saw one it was in the Pyefleet. I had heard that they were known to have reached the South Coast but was surprised to see one nearby. I was so excited that I sent a text to a friend. Since we only got a mobile phone in 1999 it must have been then or later, which makes the explosion in their numbers even more remarkable. I saw a lot roosting on East Mersea a few years ago and heard that seventy were known to roost there, but I’ve only seen sporadic ones up at Walton.

I have seen Great White Egrets many times at Abberton and once in northern Netherlands, and one recently inland in Wivenhoe. They are truly impressive birds, as are spoonbills, also occasional visitors. I have seen the odd cattle egret too, and in India the intermediate egret that must have been put there just to confuse me.

In the last few years Spoonbills have started breeding again at several RSPB reserves including the Ouse Washes and Havergate Island. The baby spoonbills have been nick-named ‘Teaspoons’.

 

[Snowgoose-1]

I don't, but you can check at the Wildlife and Wetlands Trust who run the reserve.

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Thanks. Nice site.
Changes often seems to be habitat, food changes .
A couple of years ago I had a large out of control evergreen Laurel near the house. My very nice new neighbors mentioned that it was blocking sunshine in the afternoons. They were quite right and I decided to have it removed.

From that moment on we stopped seeing Blackbirds, Blue Tits and Sparrows. The Blue Tits also stopped nesting in my nest box. I think that they just moved onto somewhere that meets their needs better.

There is a Garden Birdwatch 24th - 26th January if anyone is interested. I do mine from the local park.