Great white egret bird returns to New Forest wildlife reserve ready for winter

Aaron Shaw  Trainee Reporter

ONE of the UK's rarest birds has returned to a Hampshire wildlife reserve.

Known as Walter, the great white egret is a familiar sight to the thousands of visitors that visit the Blashford Lakes Nature reserve near Ringwood every year.

Great white egrets are one of the rarer feathered visitors to the UK, and the bird usually arrives in the UK in August ready for winter, which Walter has done since 2003.

He spends six months at the reserve which is managed by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust.

Bob Chapman, reserves officer said: "Walter has become a much loved winter fixture on the reserve and although not the rarity he was when he first turned up, he is still a great sight.

"Especially good views can be had when he is fishing close to the Ivy North hide, where sometimes he can be seen alongside kingfisher and bittern in the water."

A similar size to a heron, the great white egret was close to extinction in Europe a few decades ago, with around 35 spending their winter in the UK.

Source 

Rare Great White spotted at Conwy RSPB reserve

09:02, 19 JUL 2016

BY ANDREW FORGRAVE

Bird Notes columnist Julian Hughes of RSPB Conwy reveals what birds have been spotted in the past week and where to go birding in the coming days

Swimmers need not fear. This Great White is an Egret. The size of a Grey Heron, its bright yellow, dagger-shaped bill positively shone in my binoculars at RSPB Conwy.

We are used to seeing Little Egrets along the North Wales coast, with their black bills and legs, but the Great White is a less frequent visitor.

But where the Little Egret has blazed a trail, now nesting in heronries across the region, will Great White Egret follow?

The first pair to nest in Britain raised chicks in a Somerset reedbed in 2012 and, while its habitat needs are different to its smaller cousin, it is only 20 years since the first UK nesting Little Egrets; they have since spread far and wide.

The Great White Egret at RSPB Conwy was just the start of an excellent Monday, with Redstart, Greenshank, Green Sandpiper and Hobby seen here.

Continued … 

CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Photographer Matt Walton captures rare great white egret tussling with grey heron at RSPB Lakenheath Fen

In his latest blog, as he headed off to represent the RSPB at the Wayland Agricultural Show, communications officer David White tells us what’s been seen and photographed at this beautiful Suffolk reserve.

Local photographer Matt Walton was out and about early Froday morning and captured some striking images of the great white egret, having a tussle with one of the local grey herons and coming in to land:

Thank you to Matt for sharing these “great” (sorry, I couldn’t resist!) images with us. The bird was visible from the riverbank for most of the day but it was rather mobile.

Volunteer Les Bunyan also popped in for a walk and our slideshow shows some of the pictures that he took of:

:: A kingfisher at New Fen viewpoint;

:: A black tailed skimmer resting on the path; and

:: A ruddy darter doing likewise.

Thank you very much to Les for sharing these pictures with us.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the reserve, a juvenile common tern was on the washland and a hobby flew over West Wood. A single crane flew over Joist Fen viewpoint and two bearded tits were seen in front of the viewpoint. A stoat was also seen alongside Trial Wood.

Read more:

Fancy Feathers, Fashion and the Dawn of Bird Conservation

April 28, 2014

How the Great White Egret Inspired Bird Conservation in the Smithsonian says:

One particular group of birds suffered near extermination at the hands of feather hunters, and their plight helped awaken a conservation ethic that still resonates in the modern environmental movement. With striking white plumes and crowded, conspicuous nesting colonies, Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets faced an unfortunate double jeopardy: their feathers fetched a high price, and their breeding habits made them an easy mark.

To make matters worse, both sexes bore the fancy plumage, so hunters didn’t just target the males; they decimated entire rookeries. At the peak of the trade, an ounce of egret plume fetched the modern equivalent of two thousand dollars, and successful hunters could net a cool hundred grand in a single season. But every ounce of breeding plumes represented six dead adults, and each slain pair left behind three to five starving nestlings. Millions of birds died, and by the turn of the century this once common species survived only in the deep Everglades and other remote wetlands.

Continued

Rescued egret chick grows up fast, is released along Yakima River

A baby egret that was rescued from its nest after its mother disappeared was released into the wild in West Richland on Monday.

A new great white egret joined the birds that feed on fish in the Yakima River near West Richland on Monday.

The young egret cruised from the slough just north of the Van Giesen Street bridge to the first slight bend in the river and then back again, its neck curved in an S shape and its long black legs trailing behind him.

The bird, maybe 2 months old, had spent about half its life at the Blue Mountain Wildlife rehabilitation center in Pendleton after being rescued near Sunnyside before it could fly.

Mary Marquez and her husband, Bob, have lived on acreage east of Sunnyside for 14 years, but the six great white egrets that flew in this year were the first they'd seen, Mary said.

"We were absolutely delighted," she said. Even better, an egret nest appeared in the trees around one of the three ponds on their property.

Continued:  http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019324720_egret03.html