Edmonton: Boundary Ditch and a little egret
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Edmonton: Boundary Ditch and a little egret by Nigel Cox as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Edmonton: Boundary Ditch and a little egret
Image: © Nigel Cox Taken: 6 Oct 2010
Boundary Ditch marks the divide between Edmonton to the right and Ponders End to the left. The white bird flying along the ditch is a little egret. The RSPB currently (in 2010) estimate that there are about 150 breeding pairs of these birds in the UK, with about 1,600 birds wintering, with the distribution mainly along the south and east coasts of England. To the photographer the number seems to be a gross underestimate, because they seem to be much commoner than that, while their distribution seems to be much more widespread to the extent that one would not be surprised to see one on any inland watercourse in south-eastern England any more. Egrets are small herons and live on fish, and this one was feeding in the water before it was disturbed. The egret's presence here would also imply that the ditch is clean enough to support and sustain a healthy population of fish.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.639763
Longitude
-0.044727