A Little Bit Of Help

Little Egrets have become a pretty regular sight these days, in the last 15 years their range expansion to the north has been quite remarkable.

At Marshside RSPB in the North West of England, my local bird watching area, the numbers of birds present is continuing to increase and the local roost on Southport marine lake regularly holds upwards of 60 birds, in addition to this, there is usually one or two Great White Egrets as well, incredible.

Little Egrets are easy to see at Marshside and due to they’re size and colour they are almost impossible to miss.



I was watching several Little Egrets on the marsh over the recent high tides and observed them feeding on various food items and I could do with some help on the identification of one of the small mammals that I watched a Little Egret devouring.

Initially I thought it was a rat, but on closer inspection I couldn’t see a tail so my thoughts are now pointing towards Water Vole, your views are very much appreciated.



I suppose the more we know about these birds the more we can understand the reasons behind their success, habitat, food preferences, climate etc etc.

I’m sure that before too long they will become a regular breeding bird in our region and begin spreading even further north……Scotland still has relatively few records compared to us, so maybe we will see them up there in years to come.

Throughout the world Little Egrets have been very successful and occur on most continents, a real survivor and no doubt adaptable to many of the changes that are happening in the world today.

So, if you can help, if you know what the mammal is, I would be very interested to hear your views.