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great white egret
I'm pretty sure we saw one of these locally the other day but our big bird book indicates their range is South-Eastern Europe so had discounted it. It flew past close enough to get a good look. Heron-sized, completely white plumage - don't think I could have mistaken it for a little egret (which we see fairly often).
Arducius-
Foot colour is the easiest differentiator:
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/birds/herons-egrets-spoonbill-and-crane/great-white-egret
yellow = little egret
black = great white egret -
They are regular (if scarce) visitors to the UK. Most likely seen in winter and spring so it is possible.
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/great-white-egret/
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Five is the most I've seen at once locally and that's on Derbyshire at the edge of thier range, a decade ago they were far less common but now frequent visitors to the south and east and only going to get more common with changing climate, same with cattle egret and glossy ibis
mespilus
jdp
greentricky
Restorative couple of days, still get knackered almost three months on from Covid so still not really taking camera anywhere but yesterday at Budleigh Salterton had good numbers of teal, wigeon, curlew, redshanks, meadow pipit and rock pipit and a lone common scoter
Today at Bowling Green Marsh/ Topsham got a couple of spoonbills, lone great white egret, loads of avocet and curlews,snipe, black tailed godwit, a dozen pintail and some brent geese, most of the winter river exe big hitters, was keeping an eye out for marsh harrier but not to be
I know it is a long way from London but the lower otter restoration project at Budleigh Salterton looks like it is going to be superb, it's £15m restoring the natural floodplain, creating a breach in the the flood defences so it will get flooded at high tide and in storms, lots of scrapes and channels being built, reedbeds getting managed and new hides and screens along with improved access going in, upstream is already superb for otters and beavers, so is going to be a great place to visit for wildlife in the coming years