Little Egrets on the move

We seem to have received a good number of sightings of colour-ringed Little Egrets this summer. Birds from a small colony in Norfolk have been seen as far afield as Northumberland in previous years, and a bird ringed in 2008 (colour rings 'UZ') appears to have spent the winter at Fairburn Ings, also staying into the spring.


More impressive though was 'AF' (above), which was ringed in Kent in May 2003. It was seen local to the colony in July 2003, but then disappeared. It then reappeared on 27 June at Leighton Moss in Lancashire! This is not only a good long movement, but also makes GF09838 the oldest Little Egret we know of so far (in Britain and Ireland anyway). We still have a way to go to beat the 22 year old French bird though!

Colour-ringed birds (of any sort) can be reported online at www.ring.ac

Thanks to Richard du Feu for the photo and info.