domingo, 13 de enero de 2013

A Great Company of Great Egrets

There are various collective nouns for birds, but I've never come across one for Great Egrets! The fact that it is an uncommon visitor to British shores has a lot to do with it, of course, and even here is Extremadura you normally come across them in ones and twos. But after this evening's experience at a Cormorant and Cattle Egret roost on a local river, we do need that collective term. No fewer than 28 Great Egrets came in to roost - elegant pure-white birds circling down in graceful glides to take up places in the upper storeys of the great eucalyptus on a little island mid-river. So should we go with "skein of Great Egrets", a "charm", "wisp", or "trip"? None of these seems suitable, and as it's not often that we would be able to apply the term anyway, so we'll settle for "a lot of Great Egrets"! 



No photo of the ensemble to accompany the experience, I'm afraid, as it was on the edge of darkness when most of the birds came in. Just a single bird gliding in.