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White Heron in France

3270 Views 10 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  Sandy_Saunders, 
A
Further to the bird watching earlier yesterday, if anyone is travelling in France from Loudun on the N147 to Angliers which leads to Poitiers- just south of Loudun there is an Aire de Repose which has around 10 bays for M/Hs with electric etc. Running at the back is the River Briande and it was here in the snow that we saw two Herons, one as white as the snow. Too quick for a camera shot but would like to be travelling down there again and get a picture. The path of the River is clear on the map so they could be anywhere in the surround I know. Anyway thought someone might be interested. :) :roll:
Tried to upload two photos but not successful!
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The "white" Heron could just be an Egret :D
I have seen one or two in this country too. 8)

steve
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A
Heron in France

No I can assure you it was a WHITE heron, flying alongside a grey heron of the same size. My recollection of my last siting of an egret is that it is a smaller bird.
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A
Heron in France

No I can assure you it was a WHITE heron, flying alongside a grey heron of the same size. My recollection of my last siting of an egret is that it is a smaller bird.
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Re: Heron in France

ambegayo said:
No I can assure you it was a WHITE heron, flying alongside a grey heron of the same size. My recollection of my last siting of an egret is that it is a smaller bird.
Click to expand...
Ah-if it's the same size, we must asume albino. :?

steve
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S
Ambegayo,

We were in Sully sur Loire on 25 May and I saw what I thought at first glance was an Egret. My wife disagreed because of the size of the bird.
It was white.
I took two long distance photos, one of the bird standing and another of it in flight and it definitely was a Heron.
We are both experienced birders and have seen Herons (and Egrets) in all light conditions. Herons do look light in some circumstances but this one was definitely white.
I've never seen or heard of an albino in this country but I guess there must be a few somewhere.
I will try to upload the photos later.
Happy birding!
Sandy
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L
we have a lot of egrets in south/west wales, on the loughor esturary, but I have never seen a white heron, you must get albinos in every species even humans
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Sandy_Saunders
There are three types of Egret found in France. The Little Egret (also found in the UK these days) is smaller than a Grey Heron as you observe. The Cattle Egret is about the same size and usually found in fields rather than rivers. There is also the less common Great White Egret which is larger than a Grey Heron. It may be one of those you saw.

Cheers

Sandy
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What I do know is, little egrets and I guess other spieces of egrets will happily mingle in with Herons as I've seen in this country.

steve
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Sandy_Saunders said:
There are three types of Egret found in France. The Little Egret (also found in the UK these days) is smaller than a Grey Heron as you observe. The Cattle Egret is about the same size and usually found in fields rather than rivers. There is also the less common Great White Egret which is larger than a Grey Heron. It may be one of those you saw.

Cheers

Sandy
Click to expand...
Thanks for this information. It looks like it was probably a Great White Egret. The colour was right for this and it was on a sandbar in the river.

I've never seen a Great White Egret in this country, and wasn't really aware of their existence, but with the photos and a Google search I'm now pretty sure that is what it was.

Many thanks
Sandy....the other one.
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Sandy_Saunders
The picture (taken in France in May) shows a great white egret and a grey heron together by way of comparison. Not the best of pictures, taken looking into the light, but you can see that the egret is a big beast.

Cheers

Sandy

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