The Kent Bird Report for 2006 has just been published and under Willow Tit there were no accepted records for the year. It seems that the Willow Tit is now extinct in Kent. The picture in Sussex is little better with 33 records and no confirmed breeding records despite two possible records. Back in 1994 during the last survey it was estimated that were between 500 and 900 hundred pairs in Kent and a similar figure for Sussex. Why has there been this dramatic fall? The survey summaries for the Willow Tit back in the early nineties mentions a relatively small decline, probably due to drying out of wetland woodland, its favourite habitat, and that with climate change this trend would likely continue. I think the summarisers would be very surprised by just how rapid this decline would prove to be. To understand this decline more fully it is necessary to be familiar with Willow Tit habitat requirements and breeding/nesting methods. Their preferred habitat is damp scrubby woodland and carr, neither of which is widespread nor extensive in Kent and Sussex. Unlike all other tits other than the Crested Tit it excavates its own nest in rotten stumps of birch willow and alder. Neither does the Willow Tit use nest boxes. Unfortunately the other tits, particularly Marsh and even the small Blue, are more aggressive and often take over the nest site. The drying out of wet woodland and competition for nest sites seem to be the major causes. The rapid rise in the population of the Great Spotted Woodpecker is probably another factor whose predatory habits include boring into tree hole nest sites and consuming the young. The Willow Tit does not usually flock with other tit species during the non-breeding season and thus more vulnerable to attack from Sparrowhawks and the like. Willow Tits also do not readily come to bird feeders. The Willow and Marsh Tit look very a like and are almost impossible to distinguish in the field for the inexperienced observer. In fact they were only separated into two distinct species as late as 1897. However both their songs and calls are quite distinctive making breeding surveys relatively easy. It is many years since I saw an English Willow Tit although I have seen the continental subspecies in the Alps. The continental subspecies is a much greyer bird and so more easily separated from the Marsh Tit and it is more likely to frequent conifer woods than is its English cousin. It would appear from the early 2007-2011 atlas results that the Willow Tit is holding on well in the Midlands so the population decline does not seem to be nationwide. Fortunately it is not all one-way traffic. This last week I travelled to Dungeness to see a new invader to our shores who will surely breed here in the next few years. It is the Great White Egret. When I first put the telescope on this bird I was amazed by its size, probably enhanced by its completely white plumage except for a large orange, vicious looking beak. A nearby Little Egret looked to be one third of the size but in actual fact it is just under half as big. I was convinced the Great White Egret was larger than our Grey Heron but it is approximately the same. The Little Egret was the first in the Egret family to breed on these shores and now has a few hundred pairs reaching the north of the country. The Cattle Egret bred for the first time last year in the Somerset Levels and I am sure in another few years the Great White will follow.