Egret Excitement

As ringing Little Egrets in the UK is a relatively new phenomenon and we are finding out all sorts of new information about their demography. We previously reported a report of a Little Egret going south to Pasaxe de Pedrido, Galicia in Spain at the start of last year but the record has now been smashed!

Colour ringed Little Egret GN20692, below (blue on map), was ringed near Bangor, Gwynedd on 19 June 2010 and has been seen ALIVE in Tenerife on the 3rd and 25 of November! The bird looks a bit worse for wear due to its long flight but seems to be doing well.


Another Little Egret (GR00505) ringed in Galway, Ireland was seen on the Azores (red on map) on the 15th October with 4 other unringed Egrets! This bird was very far from the mainland and would surely have died but hopefully it will make the journey back. Without these birds being colour ringed we would have never known about their amazing flights.


View Little Egret in a larger map

Thanks to Richard de Feu, Tony Cross and Richard Hearn for letting us know.