Cattle Egret flock in BP at Drain Rd, L Ellesmere

Bird sighting information. Use this forum to report bird sightings (especially rare and unusual birds), census and field count results, and trip reports. Messages posted to this forum will also be sent as a plain text email to the BIRDING-NZ newsgroup.
andrewcrossland
Posts: 2226
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2009 2:29 pm
Location: Christchurch

Cattle Egret flock in BP at Drain Rd, L Ellesmere

Post by andrewcrossland »

22 Cattle Egrets seen today (20 in breeding plumage, 2 in non-breeding) in a paddock near Drain Road, Lake Ellesmere today. The egrets were feeding with 24 W/F Herons and Cows in the paddock near the farmhouse, barn, etc on the "inland" side of The Lake Road. They then flew to a nearby shelter belt of tall macrocarpas and roosted in the crown. I'll try to add a long range photo. If only we could stick some decoy birds and nests in those macrocarpas?!! Could be trigger some nesting amongst these breeding-plumaged Cattle Egrets?
andrewcrossland
Posts: 2226
Joined: Mon Dec 14, 2009 2:29 pm
Location: Christchurch

Re: Cattle Egret flock in BP at Drain Rd, L Ellesmere

Post by andrewcrossland »

cattle egret3.jpg
(32.85 KiB) Viewed 2247 times
Jilly
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 6:58 am

Re: Cattle Egret flock in BP at Drain Rd, L Ellesmere

Post by Jilly »

Haven't seen one since we lived in Patea, Taranaki in the late 80s, they look quite exotic in a field where dairy cows are grazing!
Jan
Posts: 1980
Joined: Fri Jul 03, 2009 10:43 am
Location: Christchurch

Re: Cattle Egret flock in BP at Drain Rd, L Ellesmere

Post by Jan »

the Cattle Egrets were still in the same site today 28th Oct, but I didn't get a count.
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic