Title of prettiest bird has many competitors

BIRDS are quick to exploit any new food sources. The other afternoon, a beautiful May day, we spotted an egret fishing in a small stream inland from Clogheen Marsh, near Clonakilty in West Cork, where two shelduck were feeding in a flooded meadow, writes Damien Enright

The stream was as silver as a mirror in the sunlight, and the egret stood tall and elegant, a perfect picture in the glittering water with tall flag irises behind it, not yet in flower. What a picture it would make, were the irises in bloom, the green stems and their brilliant yellow flowers, and the immaculate white bird beside them.

Little egrets now appear in every coastal county, and inland too, not quite 20 years after they first bred here. In the breeding season, they grow two or three thin plumes on the back of the head, up to 16cm long. With divine artistry, the long, thin, dagger-like beak, and long legs, are jet black, in contrast to the peerless white of the plumage.