A first for Notts!

No, not a White-rumped Sandpiper at Collingham Pits, but my local patch has scored a first for Nottinghamshire - breeding Little Egrets! Some of my loyal readers (there are a couple - you know who you are!) correctly guessed this after my recent teasing post, but news is now officially out after an NWT press release, the BTO tweeted the news, and the story even featured on East Midlands Today.

I first became aware of the good news on 19th May; I was stood next to Mons Pool, and could hear the sound of ladders being extended, and guessed straight away North Notts Ringing Group were in the heronry. The activity was clearly disturbing the Grey Herons, which were circling around overhead in some numbers. Curiously, I could see at least 5 Little Egrets doing the same, and settling up on the top of the ash trees. If they were only roosting I would've expected them to fly straight off... surely this was evidence of breeding?!

I was joined in a little while by John Ellis, who'd seen no fewer than 9 Little Egrets circling the heronry, and he too knew that something was up. We parted company after lots of speculation, and I headed round to the carpark at Mons Pool, just as the ringers were coming off the island. I think they were a bit taken aback by my opening greeting - "how many Little Egret nests have you found then?". But Jim Lennon and Adrian Blackburn soon volunteered that they had indeed found 6 or 7 Little Egret nests and these contained eggs - breeding confirmed! But I was sworn to secrecy, which was entirely reasonable given the sensitivity of the record.

I was invited to NNRG's return visit to the heronry at the start of June, but this coincided with my trip to Scotland so unfortunately I couldn't make it, but 16 young were ringed (from, I believe, a total of 9 nests). The young are colour-ringed, and I saw my first ringed birds on 14th July - Robin Brace had seen a couple a few days earlier when I was in France. The colour-ring code that is used on these birds is an orange darvic ring on the left leg with the letter 'L' in black text, and a green darvic ring on the right leg with a variable letter in white text - I myself have seen 'S', 'C', 'K' and 'T'. If you spot any, make a note of when, where, how many, and which other colour-ringed birds they were with, and send your record in!