When I was a boy in Hong Kong, just starting out on my lifetime's path as a naturalist, my favourite birds were the little egrets, which then were extinct back in my homeland. As a boy I could quote you chapter and verse how Victorial ladies wore the plumes of these dainty herons in their hats, and that the pressure of hunting had driven these lovely creatures to extinction in Britain.Nowadays, however, girls no longer trim their headwear with egret feathers, and they are slowly making a comeback. They started breeding here in 1996, and are spreading rapidly. So rapidly, in fact, that for the first time since I was a boy, I got really close to one. We were just leaving Northam Burrows when Corinna slammed her foot on the brakes, and we shuddered to a halt. "Look" she whispered urgently. Unfortunately it took off before I managed to photograph it on the ground.
Huzzah!
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