Cattle egret numbers just keep on growing in the north west, with Marshside seemingly a hotspot for the species. My previous best was eight a couple of years ago, but today there were nearly double that number with 15 birds in amongst the cattle at the back of the marsh, easily my best ever UK count of the species. Cattle Egret is a cosmopolitan species which I've seen just about everywhere I've been from Florida in the US, to southern Europe, to Australia but not New Zealand. However the Australian birds are now usually considered a separate species, our birds are western, the Australian birds are eastern cattle egrets. Portugal and Spain are the places where I have seen most cattle egrets, with flocks of up to 200 in some places.
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