• Home
  • PICKERINGS PASTURE LNR
    • Latest News 2019
    • Things to look out for in Winter
    • Work Parties 2019 >
      • Pickerings Pasture Volunteers
    • The Bats of Pickerings Pasture LNR
    • The Kingfisher
    • What is a Scrape?
    • National Mammal Week
    • The Tidal Bore on the River Mersey
    • WeBS Counts
    • The Peregrine Falcon
    • Canada Geese
    • Black-tailed godwits
    • Dunlins
    • Tree Clearance
    • Top tips for your tubs
    • Pickerings Pasture Leaflet.
  • The Wildlife Garden
    • Plant List
    • Making a Wildlife Garden
    • Info on wildlife-friendly gardening
  • HALE DUCK DECOY
    • Hale Duck Decoy - Recent Events
    • Hale Duck Decoy - AT RISK
    • First Impressions
    • The History of Hale Duck Decoy >
      • Restoration
      • The Flood 1990
      • Dredging the Pond and Moat.
      • Tidal Surge & Flooding 2013
      • The Freemen of Hale
    • Booking a Decoy Guided Walk
    • Wildlife - Past and Present - on Hale Duck Decoy
    • Wildlife photographs from Hale Duck Decoy
  • Photo Gallery
    • The Insects at Pickerings Pasture
    • WILDLIFE Gallery
    • Little Owls
    • The Meadows at Pickerings Pasture
    • Fungus
    • Halebank Park
    • Old slides of Hale Duck Decoy
  • Archived Information- A Guide
    • Latest News
    • Latest News
    • A brilliant display
    • A ringing recovery
    • A Walk in Arctic Woodland
    • BBC Wildlife Magazine promotes Pickerings Pasture.
    • Canada Goose Nest 2015
    • Childe of Hale
    • Cleaning Up Pickerings Pasture
    • Great White Egret
    • Harbour Porpoise (Updated)
    • The Cornfield Meadow
    • The Kingfisher Returns
    • The Pathways Work
    • Visit by Botanical Society from Nantes, in France
    • Windblown Waif
    • Young Nature Conservationists
    • Incident down at Pickerings
    • ​The Peoples’ March for Wildlife, London
    • Rock On Barney
    • The Ibis Pool
  • LINKS
  • COMMENTS PAGE
  The Friends of Pickerings Pasture - Wildlife Sightings


Picture
Great white egret on Hale Marsh. (Sat 9.3.13)
Great White Egret - A rare visitor to Hale Marsh

Recently a great-white egret has paid several visits to Hale Marsh and the field pools off Carr Lane. These birds are rare visitors and of great interest to the local birdwatchers and public alike.



Great-white egrets are easy to tell with their white plumage, a yellow dagger-like beak and their large size. They are as big as the local grey herons and slightly taller.
Picture
Great white egret hunkering down out of the wind on Hale Duck Decoy.
The little egret is much smaller with a dagger-like black beak and yellow feet.

Picture
Little egret on the scrape at Pickerings Pasture.
Great-white egret numbers have been increasing in France and Holland during the last few years. For the first time ever a pair finally bred in south-west England in 2011 and have continued to rear young each year.

They appear to be following in the path of the little egret which, ten years or so ago, was a rarity in England. It now breeds in quite large numbers throughout the country and even into Cheshire.  We assume the changing weather patterns, probably brought about by global warming, are having an effect: allowing the birds to spread further north and increasing their range.

Picture
Two little egrets on a pool on Hale Marsh.
Little egrets can be seen locally from Autumn through to Spring: sometimes with up to four or five present on the local marshes or pools. Probably the best place to see them or photograph them closely is from the bird hide at Pickerings Pasture.

We were pleased to see the great white egret return in the Autumn of 2013.



Picture
Both species were often seen together throughout
Picture
winter 2013/14.
Picture
RP & CA Cockbain
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.