Snowy egret

Hi Jane and welcome to the forum ... we don't have Snowy Egrets in UK but we do have Great White and Little Egrets, here is a BTO video showing the difference
www.bto.org/.../bto-bird-id-little-egret-and-great-white-egret

Black legs and yellow feet = Little Egret. An increasingly common species now in the UK.

Thanks for the info, my Son looked it up and we thought it looked like a snowy egret as we haven't seen anything like it before.

Very easy to find a likely bird on the internet without realising that it's not a resident of UK, you have to be very specific in saying 'in UK' in the search question!

There are also Cattle Egrets as well nesting/breeding in some parts of the UK. Cattle Egrets are smaller than Little Egrets!

Marsh

They're breeding. Over the past decade (or decade and a half) they have expanded their range in the UK.

As said, it would have been a little egret. Very common in SW in particular, but I remember one over a decade ago feeding in a local brook about 3mins walk away from the former house. Snowy egrets realistically aren't going to be identified by looking up, unless decent photos were taken of the bird, to compare.

Cattle Egets have been regular at Saltholme and indeed at Fairburn Ings as well in Yorkshire. So saying they are just seen in Southern England is wrong. Maybe with nesting and breeding. But certainly not just seen further south. A Great White Egret succeeded with nesting and breeding with young in North East England in 2023 as well.

Unknown said:

Cattle Egets have been regular at Saltholme and indeed at Fairburn Ings as well in Yorkshire. So saying they are just seen in Southern England is wrong.

Who said that?