Over the last 30 years or so the gangly, beautiful Great White Egret has been travelling north and west. 1994 saw the first breeding record in France, and in 2012 a pair nested for the first time in England – here on the Avalon Marshes. Since then the population has exploded, with year-on-year increases until in 2023 we recorded an amazing 53 successful nests, with no fewer than 88 chicks fledged. But as soon as they can fly, they vanish. So where do they go?

In 2016 we started a colour ringing programme to find out. It isn’t easy to ring chunky chicks sitting on precarious reed nests suspended over deep, peaty water. So we keep an eye on them by drone, and when the time is right we visit the nests by kayak. Each chick gets a bright red ring with three white letters, and within weeks people are sending in sightings from all over the country. Our birds have now been reported from 33 different counties in England as well as from Wales, Scotland and even western Ireland.

But he will grow into a strikingly elegant pure white bird, with a wedding train of dazzling display plumes. His outlandish skin will vanish beneath his feathers, leaving only an alluring lime green cheek patch which will brighten impressively as he seeks a mate.

ABU turns out to have a sense of adventure. Ringed in May, by July he was in Lincolnshire. Lincolnshire didn’t suit, and three weeks later he was seen in North Yorkshire. Not ideal there either, so after another three weeks he was back in Lincolnshire, this time at a different site. By the end of September he was exploring a reservoir on the Northamptonshire-Leicestershire border, but then kept a low profile till February – when he popped up back in Lincolnshire, at a third site. And to our huge surprise, the following May ABU celebrated his first birthday by returning to Somerset, where he was seen striding about at Westhay’s sister reserve Catcott. He’s not yet old enough to breed – but this year he will be, so fingers crossed!

ACV was ringed a year later in May 2023, at the same age of just over 2 weeks. He’s also male, and we’ve had just one sighting of him, in September, when he turned up in the Avon Valley at Christchurch in Dorset. Dorset isn’t far away, but this is the first time one of our birds has been seen there. How will ACV get on? Most Great White Egret chicks do not survive their first winter – they not only travel to distant locations, but have to find enough food in cold conditions at the extreme northern edge of their range. But our hopes are high for ACV – who after all has taken the precaution of travelling with friends. Time will tell!