In which events take an unexpected turn…
Acting as directed by @Tamerlane and @carnut , I cycled out to Lingfield today. A fools errand, right? Expecting birds to have helpfully hung around for two days waiting for me to make my way back and take some more photos.
The field where the egrets were on Saturday was empty - not even any cows. The cattle were in the next field along - I snuck a few meters up the farm drive to take a look. A few cows but no birds. The next field along - one cow and three egrets. And a public footpath running alongside the field. Lordy.
The cow was nosey, of course, and quite happy to approach me - the egrets not so much; this was as close as I could get. Eventually they flew off. Maybe, I wondered, they flew to one of the other fields? So I retraced my steps, and found that there was now a van on the farm drive with the farmer unloading it. After asking if I could trespass a little on his drive (conversational miss-step - he thought I meant to take a piss) I got round to taking more pictures.
They’re egrets, I said.
Oh yes, he replied, Cattle Egrets.
Uh yuh - eh wha - wuh…How did you know that? I asked.
Turns out “The Tractor Man” is a birder and recognized them (!) There are 12 or 13 (!!) and they moved in two years ago. Upthread I posted this link which says the UK overwintering population is about 100.If that was true, this group (because I am now convinced these are Cattle Egrets) would be one of the biggest populations - presumably breeding - in the UK (!!!)
You know what I think? I think (a) they are Cattle Egrets; (b) the UK overwintering population is MUCH higher than that figure; and (c) I’ve seen them before, a couple of years ago, also in low lying fields but in very wet weather, in a partially flooded field where horses were kept - and I just thought they were regular Little Egrets that had stopped by because there was a handy expanse of water for them.
Question: did I take a photo on that occasion? I need to check.
j