A fashionable bird

Colin Smale looks at how climate change has seen a growth in the population of Lincolnshire’s increasingly familiar little white ‘herons’.

When walking along the coast you will surely have noticed these little white ‘herons’, so common today but only 60 years ago you were very unlikely to see any anywhere.

I’m a great believer in having what I call “a patch”, a bird-watching area I visit above all other areas and, way back in 2008, I noticed a new visitor to my patch: a very small white heron. Over the ensuing years these once rare ‘little egrets’ made my patch, Grainthorpe Marsh, their home.

The effect of climate change has driven many Mediterranean birds north and the little egret has been one of them.

Evidence suggests that Little Egrets were once present in northern England in the distant past. Egret meat was served at the 1429 coronation feast of King Henry VI and at the 1465 feast for Archbishop George Neville (canon and prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral) so there once were sizable populations in the region in the 15th century. However, over-hunting (especially for their decorative plumes) devastated populations across Europe, including Britain. The story of the little egret, fashion, and plumage is one of the most striking examples of how human tastes almost wiped out a bird – and how that same tragedy helped give birth to modern bird conservation, and organisations such as the RSPB. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, fashionable women’s hats in Europe and North America were often lavishly decorated with feathers.

The most prized of all were the aigrettes:
• Long, delicate white plumes
• Grown by little egrets and other egrets only during the breeding season
• Naturally elegant, filament-like, and shimmering
These feathers symbolised wealth, refinement, and high fashion. Ironically, they were worn most often at weddings and social events – while their source birds were being slaughtered in their thousands.

Rare vagrants
From the 1950s through to the 1980s, little egrets were recorded only sporadically in Britain as occasional migrants from continental Europe. Around 1958-88, there were on average fewer than 15 per year in the whole of Britain.

The earliest acceptable county sighting was at Frampton Marsh on 23rd July 1966 – at that time still very rare.

First breeding confirmed
Little egrets were first confirmed breeding in Lincolnshire in 2007. Since then, the number of breeding pairs and nestlings has risen quickly, with 100+ pairs at multiple sites by the mid-2010s.

Several factors have contributed to their comeback in Lincolnshire and the UK generally:
• Range expansion from continental Europe as coastal and inland wetlands became suitable
• Warmer winters and climate change making northern Europe more hospitable
• Legal protection and conservation helping populations rebuild after historical declines

Today little egrets are regular residents and breeders throughout Lincolnshire – seen year-round in suitable wetland habitats. Records indicate they’re no longer just rare migrants but a familiar part of Lincolnshire’s birdlife.

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