[jeff]

At Brandon Marsh today (10:30) I saw an egret, heron sized, all white with all yellow bill and dark legs on east marsh pool by the time I had returned with the camera it had gone, so no pictures :-(

All the pictures i've looked at show little egret with black or black and yellow bill?
Can't say i noticed the colour of it's feet.
Can little egrets have pure yellow bills as well?

In the sighting book there were records of little egret at Wolston bridge during the past few days.

So was it a little egret and was it great egret?

Next time i'll know to check out those feet :-)

[Charles Harper]

Never seen one here with a yellow bill, Jeff.

[Grousemore]

From the description it must have been a Great Egret(Great White Heron)as Little Egret has a dark bill all year.
What about size,the Great Egret is some 50% bigger than the Little Egret?

[jeff]

Size was about the same size as a grey heron.

[Charles Harper]

Great Egret, then, no question.

[jeff]

Many thanks.

Are great egrets more common in the UK like little egrets are nowadays.

[Pterodroma kid]

Hi Jeff,

A Great Egret has just been reported at Brandon Marsh on Birdguides (though I suppose you might have put the news on there!)

Great Egrets do seem to be getting commoner but they are still official rarities in the UK.

Best wishes and congratulations

Julian

[IanF]

This one does sound like a GW Egret. In previous years I have seen more GW than L Egreats in this area - neither being very numerous. However this year Little Egrets seem to be popping up every few days for a couple of weeks now. We even had two together earlier this week.
L Egrets are definitely more numerous around here this year.

[jeff]

Thanks for your replies.

I had posted on the warwickbirds mailing list, so maybe it made it to birdguides via that route or maybe someone else was there earlier and saw it as well.