heliastes21's Journal

The expansion of the great egret into East Anglia has been, in no small part, due to the astonishing and often ground-breaking work carried out by conservation bodies in the Netherlands. The species was previously considered an exotic visitor to British shores, and in 1970 as few as 150 were recorded across the whole of Europe. Over 8,000 great white egrets were spotted in the UK in 2020, up from 1,000 in 2010.

The Great Egret was persecuted by 'plume hunters' across much of Europe during the 1800s. It's brilliant white plumes – long feathers used in display – were highly sought after by milliners providing hats to fashionable ladies. For much of the 20th century it was restricted to the wetlands of eastern Europe. In 2012, it successfully nested in Britain for the first time on the Somerset Levels, where small but increasing numbers have continued to breed. In the summer of 2017 Great Egrets fledged three chicks at Holkham NNR, Norfolk, marking the county’s first successful breeding attempt.

In the past three years I have seen Great Egret at NWT Hickling Broad (Norfolk), Marston Marsh nature reserve (Norfolk), Holkham nature reserve (Norfolk), WWT Welney (Norfolk), RSPB Strumpshaw Fen (Norfolk), RSPB Buckenham Marshes (Norfolk), RSPB Titchwell Marshes (Norfolk), Ormesby Little Broad (Norfolk), Carlton Marshes (Sufolk), Dunwich Heath (Suffolk), RSPB Minsmere (Suffolk), Rutland Water and Eyebrook Reservoir (Leicestershire) as well as in South Korea, Zambia, South Africa, Cuba, USA (Florida), Brazil, Borneo and Antigua.

The brown rat (Rattus norvegicus), is thought to have originated in northern China and neighbouring areas, although this rodent has now spread to all continents (except Antarctica), and is the dominant rat species in Europe and much of North America.

Pick up any text book that talks about the arrival of the rat (either species) into the United Kingdom and you tend to read the same answer. For the Black rat (Rattus rattus) this species arrived in the 12th Century, following on from the Crusades, and for the Brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) the arrival date was during the 18th Century .

Suckow et al. (2006), suggests that the arrival of the Brown rat occurred between 1728 and 1730, a date that is widely quoted elsewhere. The reason for this isn't entirely clear, but it is believed to be tied in with the arrival of Russian fleets from the Baltic and rats being noticed in large numbers in some areas of the UK.

The father of the Naturalist Charles Waterton (1782-1865) however, was convinced that the Brown rat came over with George 1st in 1714. This was largely because both George 1st and the brown rat were seemingly very unpopular. It is also where the brown rat gets the title 'Hanoverian rat'. Interestingly his son (Charles Waterton, Essays on Natural History), reported that the Brown rat came over with William of Orange, another unpopular monarch, in 1688. Yet another theory, written by an American Scholar Alfred Henry Miles in 1895, links the arrival to trade with Central Asia from the end of the 17th C. One thing is certain however, despite it's scientific name, the Brown rat did not come from Norway. The Brown rat is not known to have reached Norway until 1762.

(Mostly based on https://www.nfrs.org/articles_arrival.html)
Suckow et al. (2006) The Laboratory Rat, 2nd ed. Academic Press. pp. 74. ISBN 0-12-074903-3.

18th February 2023 was an extraordinary day, during which I managed to bag two rarities within a few miles of each other – and coincidentally both were named on the basis of ‘long’ features on their head.

The long-eared owl is infrequently spotted in the United Kingdom. The wintering population includes both birds that have bred here and others that have arrived from Fennoscandia, eastern Europe and Russia. This is the most nocturnal of the British owls and individuals are seldom seen hunting during daylight hours. Previously I had only seen this species offshore in the central North Sea (in October 2005) when a pair landed on our ship from one of the nearby oil rigs.

The long-billed dowitcher is primarily an autumn vagrant to the UK but has been recorded in all months. The bird itself looks like a cross between a godwit and a snipe. Long-billed dowitchers breed in the Arctic tundra of North America and Siberia, and winter in California and Central America. But sometimes, on their long migratory travels, they wander off course and end up on this side of the Atlantic.

This individual stayed at RSPB Cley Marshes for over a year, and I caught up with it again on 12th August 2023, 30th September 2023 and 6th April 2024.