Pair of egrets take to wet weather

ACCORDING to the Meteorological Service, average temperatures here rose by three quarters of a degree in the last 20 years.

Our part of the world is getting warmer and wetter. For most wild creatures, this is not good news. Some, however, will benefit from the trend.

Egrets, for example, seem enthusiastic about climate change. At any rate, two species have moved northwards and westwards in recent years. Now a third member of the tribe may be doing the same; it has just been announced that the great white egret has bred for the first time in Britain. The nest is at Shapwick Heath, a Natural England reserve in Somerset.

The great egret is found in every continent apart from Antarctica. In Europe, however, its numbers are low; many of the wetlands it frequented have been drained and the bird was hunted to the brink of extinction for the millinery trade.

The nearest substantial breeding colonies are in Austria and Hungary but birds have been visiting Britain increasingly. They are also coming to Ireland; there is a sighting or two most years.

The Shapwick Heath female is known to ornithologists; she was ringed as a nestling in May 2009 at Besné in France. Having visited Gloucestershire Wales and Lancashire, she settled at the Somerset Levels two years ago.

Last April, local birdwatchers noticed signs of nesting and alerted Natural England and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. The site is guarded around the clock. It’s impossible to see the nest without disturbing the birds. However, a small chick has been seen.

Great white egrets lay up to five eggs. Incubation starts with the first one, so hatching occurs at two-day intervals; seeing only one chick does not necessarily mean that others won’t emerge. Egrets prefer to nest in colonies rather than on their own and they return to the same location each year. Hopes are high that, all going well, this exotic bird will become established in Somerset.

As global warming continues, species which can easily do so may move northwards as their southern haunts become hotter and drier. The egret family seems to bear out this prediction. Little egrets and cattle egrets began breeding in Britain in the last 20 years. The little egret was seen for the first time in Ireland in 1940.

From the late 1950s onwards, there were sightings most years. Then, in 1997, about a dozen pairs nested at a heronry near Youghal. The new arrivals prospered and colonised other locations along the south coast. Egrets, like their cousins the herons, are vulnerable in cold weather; frost and ice can cut off access to the invertebrates they eat. During the hard winters of 2007, 2008 and 2009, it was feared the immigrants and their Irish-born young wouldn’t survive but they did. The bird is now found in every coastal county. Nor have the Irish birds lost touch with their roots; a little egret, ringed as a chick in Galway by John Lusby of BirdWatch Ireland, was found in the Azores, 2,100km away. Cattle egrets too are being seen here in increasing numbers. According to the Irish Bird Report, there were 36 records for Cork and 10 for Waterford in 2011.

Telling the various egret species apart, at least in this part of the world, is relatively easy. The little egret, which can be seen on estuaries everywhere, has no dress sense; its garish yellow feet don’t match the all-white plumage. The bill and eye, however, are an elegant black. The cattle egret is much rarer in Ireland. Found in wetlands, it visits fields where there are livestock.

Ironically, it’s smaller than the little egret. The bill is yellow and the breeding plumage has patches of orange. The great white egret, being much larger, is unmistakable. However, if you visit Florida, you may see a white marsh bird which is much bigger than the great egret. Don’t be fooled; this is the great white heron, a ‘colour morph’ of the great blue heron and not an egret.