Great Egret thriving in Somerset

Great Egret is going from strength to strength as a breeding species in Somerset following another record-breaking season.

Natural England Wessex has confirmed that no fewer than 88 chicks fledged from a total of 53 nests at sites in the Avalon Marshes during summer 2023. This tops previous record-breaking years, such as in 2021 when an estimated 50 chicks fledged.

Some 88 Great Egret chicks fledged from nests in the Avalon Marshes this year (Holly Tudball).

The most productive site this year was Decoy Lake at Shapwick Heath, where a total of 22 chicks fledged. The RSPB's Ham Wall reserve also enjoyed a productive year.

Great Egret only joined the list of breeding British birds in 2012, when a pair nested at Shapwick Heath – the epicentre of the current population in the country. For much of the 20th century it was restricted to the wetlands of eastern Europe but, since the 1990s, the species began to make a comeback, nesting in increasing numbers across Europe and spreading west.

Since 2012, numbers of breeding birds in Somerset have steadily increased. In 2017, a pair of Great Egrets fledged three chicks at Holkham NNR, Norfolk, marking the county's first successful breeding attempt. In 2019, a single pair nested in Cheshire for the first time, at Burton Mere Wetlands.