Great white egret    Ardea alba

A rare but regular visitor to Britain.. 

Chard Reservoir in south Somerset gave particularly good views in August 2009.

Purple heron    Ardea purpurea (D)

Another rare but regular visitor to Britain, often to be found skulking by canals and lakes with a good cover of vegetation.

This one appeared near my home in Leicester.

Cattle egret    Bubulcus ibis

Cattle Egrets are turning up everywhere, including close to my home in Gloucestershire.

Still regarded as rare here, they are extremely common on mainland Europe and around the world even!

Little egret    Egretta garzetta

Ditto the above for cattle Egret, but in the Little Egret's case, they have been in the UK for many years now and are perhaps now considered a fairly common bird.

It's the yellow feet that really gives their identification away.

Heron portrait with fish                                                                                                                   Heron 04

Heron 03                                                                                                                                       Heron 08

Grey heron    Ardea cinerea (D)

The original British heron, the Heron patrols its patch of riverbank waiting motionless for fish to pass by.  They are nervous birds with keen eyesight and therefore very difficult to approach (they've been in Britain long enough to learn about the British love for wildlife crime and persecution!).  I suspect they have been mainly persecuted for centuries by fisherman who are jealous about the Heron's superior skills at catching fish!

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