Cattle Egrets were first reported to have bred in Britain in 2008, with two pairs nesting in Somerset. We have just spent the last two days birding on the Avalon Marshes in Somerset and saw large numbers of these birds at Catcott Marshes and RSPB Greylake. The colonisation that is taking place is probably due to climate change and with the continuation of this wonderful summer it certainly feels like there is a massive shift in our climate.
We also regularly saw great egrets and little egrets which not so many years ago were also rare visitors to the UK.
Yet, once again, the star of our birding on these two days were kingfishers which we saw regularly flying in front of the hide at RSPB Greylake.
There were also good views of water rails at Greylake.
From this small reserve we also saw marsh harriers (rather distant) and grey herons and a reed warbler.
At RSPB Ham Wall there wasn’t a lot extra for us to see except for a common chiffchaff, great crested grebes and plenty of dragonflies and butterflies.
But the best of them all was my namesake in French – “Martin Pêcheur”.
If you are ever in these parts we can highly recommend The Swan at Wedmore where we stayed overnight.
Martin's Bird Blog & Nature Photos 
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