A lunchtime stroll in Wootten Wawen (a Warwickshire village just outside Henley-in-Arden) found a Little Egret busily feeding on the edge of the manor house pond.
While still quite an unusual sight in Warwickshire, this elegant white heron-like bird is certainly becoming more common across the UK, even breeding in a number of coastal locations (I think Poole Harbour may have been the first). Over the last decade or so, the warmer climate seems to have helped this species to spread north from its former southern European strongholds.
It is still rare enough, however, to make it a rare lunchtime treat, with Wootten Wawen now only the fourth Warwickshire site in which I have seen a Little Egret (after Ladywalk, Brandon Marsh and Leam Valley).
1 comment:
Hello,
Yes, I saw what I think was a little egret flying over the park next to the Conway Estate in Alceter, along the River Arrow. Just a quick view of it flying away across the trees but enough to know that it wasn't a heron (the pure white is quite unmistakeable, as well as the smaller size). I've never spotted one in the UK, but have seen them in the South of France and Italy.
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