A warm welcome

The one advantage to global warming is that we get to enjoy a wider variety of wildlife species in our milder winters. Get out and see the lovely Little Egret, says Éanna Ní Lamhna 

Photo by Clive Timmons 

This talk of climate change isn't all codology you know. Our winters in particular are getting warmer in Ireland. There are now only 10 winter days below freezing per year as opposed to 20 in the last century. Wildlife species that could not have survived our winters 20 or 30 years ago can now be seen quite readily.One such species is the Little Egret. In my Readers Digest Book of British Birds, published in 1972, this species is included in the section on exotic visitors from South-west Europe and Africa. It is a small, elegant, all-white heron with a black beak and yellow feet. In summer the adults develop two drooping crest feathers.

These were greatly coveted by 19th-century plumage traders and in those southern parts of Europe, where the climate suited them, they were polished off to adorn hats. One hundred years ago this was a very rare bird indeed.The first edition of that illustrious tome, the Atlas of Breeding Birds in Britain and Ireland, published in 1976, does not mention the Little Egret at all as a species that bred even once on these islands, while its companion volume, the Atlas of Wintering Birds in Britain and Ireland, published a decade later in 1986, mentions that one was spotted once in England in winter. They were seen in summer on and off but were considered to be migrant overshoots from their French breeding grounds. Once it dawned on them that they were in these parts, they quickly departed.However, in the mid-1990s, the summer visitors were noticed to be staying here over the winter and could be spotted along the south coast of counties Cork and Waterford.

 In 1997, the Little Egret bred here for the first time – a colony of 12 pairs nested at one site in the Blackwater valley in Co Cork – setting up an “egrettry”, I suppose. They are now spreading along the coast – 32 pairs bred in 1999, 122 pairs in 2003. It has also rounded the corner and occurs along the east coast as well, up as far as Dundalk Bay, and there are occasional sightings in Co Mayo, where Little Egrets have been recorded in Belmullet and Clew Bay.This is a really gorgeous bird and one that the most casual of observers cannot fail to observe and identify. You don't need binoculars to see it, never mind a telescope.

At this time of year it can be seen on coastal mudflats where it dashes madly about in shallow waters probing with its dagger-like black beak for fish, invertebrates and frogs. No standing about patiently for hours, as does its close relation, the Grey Heron.In summer it builds its nest in a colony with other egrets in beech, oak, alder, larch or spruce trees in woodland areas near the water. Herons do this too and the heronry may in fact alert the egrets to the suitability of such a site for breeding. There is no reason to go any longer without seeing this bird in the wild. With the low sunshine on a bright winter's day, it really shines out among the feeding birds in a muddy estuary. Go out and look for it and marvel that it is not all bad news associated with climate change.