When I was growing up in the 1970's and 80's , I never thought I'd see the day that Cattle Egrets would be a regular visitor to Ireland. I remember in the 1990's travelling to Rostellan in Cork with my nephew Tomas to see Irelands first Cattle Egret on a beef farm, where the bird in question was spending his time walking around under the feet of a bull, picking out worms disturbed by the heavy beast and occasionally jumping up on his back for a rest and a free ride when he got tired. Nowadays, Cattle Egrets are no longer a rare visitor to Ireland, and every young birders ticks at least one off their list annually. I've been lucky here on the west coast to have found the first four county records and a following three more with these two birds recently turning up in fields along the bog road at Loop Head on 15th and 16th October. It was funny when I look back on it, as one of our younger birders with me that day James, had never seen a Cattle Egret in Ireland, before but had just returned from climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, where he had photos of Cattle Egrets sitting on the backs of Water Buffalo. Oh how times have changed.
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