The rise of three egret species across the UK has been nothing short of mercurial. First Little Egrets, then Great Egrets and now Cattle Egrets. All three are species I twitched many years ago when rare, and all three are now breeding in Cheshire.
Whilst Little Egrets are now expected on patch, and Great's are an increasingly regular visitor, Cattle Egret has so far remained rare. The first was a brief bird last summer, but only the finder saw that one. However it was inevitable that another would soon appear, so the news of a bird on Neumann's on 27th September was hardly a surprise. I would normally dash down for any patch tick, but am currently not feeling overly enthused about the patch, and the inevitability of this species (and increasing records) didn't add any sense of urgency. The bird settled in to a routine of feeding on Dairy House Meadows, feeding amongst the cattle, and roosting on Neumann's.
I eventually found time and enthusiasm on 9th October, and in the end found myself rather enjoying this bird. There is still a touch of the exotic about an egret, and watching this bird took me back to one of my very first twitches; in January 1987 my dad drove me to New Mills in Derbyshire to see my first. If I recall correctly we had to wait some time for it to appear on a cold day, but I was suitably delighted to see it. I guess I was already destined to be a twitcher even at 16.
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