If you’ve visited Burton Mere Wetlands in the past couple of weeks, you’ll know there’s a whole host of baby birds hatching around the reserve, from stars like the stunning, showy avocets to the more obscure, elusive songbirds like blackcaps – not to mention plenty of the common and familiar faces many of which you might also find in your garden.
However one family that’s been particularly active and a hot topic of conversation this week are the herons. The heron family of course, not only includes our instantly recognisable grey heron, but also the egrets. Regular visitors will know that Marsh Covert woodland, immediately adjacent to the reserve, is home to one of the largest colonies of little egrets in the country, plus a healthy number of heron nests too.
This week has seen the first few juvenile grey herons fledge the nests and venture down to the wetlands, learning to stalk prey often to comical effect. There should be plenty more to follow and previous summers we’ve witnessed a sort of heron ‘crèche’ in the pools around Marsh Covert hide.
The little egrets meanwhile, typically start nesting a little later than the herons so their young are still being fed in the nests, but can at times be viewed from the new viewing area we have created on the approach to Marsh Covert hide, or even from either of the two hides (at long range from Inner Marsh Farm hide).
Undoubtedly though, the biggest news of the spring so far is that in amongst the dozens of little egret nests there is a pair of their much rarer cousin, the cattle egret, upon a nest and currently feeding at least one chick! Although these birds have been no stranger to the reserve in recent years, with up to six individuals feeding around the cattle grazing the reserve’s wet grassland last autumn, this is an amazing development as cattle egrets have only nested twice previously in the UK, both in southwest England.
Cattle egret in trees by Roy Lowry
What a coup then, to have them nesting on the Dee Estuary, clearly feeling at home in the surrounds of such an established little egret colony. In fact there have been up to six adult birds seen so we may find in due course that there’s more than the one pair nesting!
It’s ironic really, as the reserve team had made efforts through last autumn and winter to increase the fish stocks on the reserve in a bid to keep the third type of egret – great white, which have become a routine winter visitor – into the spring and hopefully establish breeding. Not to be outdone by their rarer cousins, there are at least five great whites on the estuary at present, but four of those are immature birds still with the bright yellow beak. Adults in breeding condition have a dark beak, which one of the local birds currently does, but signs and hope of nesting are limited for this year.
Great white egret in Reedbed Pool by Chris Wilding
As already mentioned, the nesting little and cattle egrets are not easily viewed as they sit high in the trees of a fairly dense mixed woodland. However that will change over the coming weeks, as the young birds fledge and start exploring the wetlands in search of their own food. Marsh Covert hide is usually the best place to catch the action, and actually over the past couple of weeks the great white egrets, especially the immature birds, have been living up to their name with some great hunting activity particularly in the pool on the reedbed side of Marsh Covert hide.
Stay tuned for further updates, or better still come along for a visit to catch all the action while its happening!