So many herons!

[Paul_B]

Took the dog for a walk along the Kent estuary and saw a heron. Then another and another. I saw 4 all less than 100m apart. There might have been more because there dad something seems else similar just out of range for my eyesight.

As a kid I rarely saw herons in the UK but 30 years ago I went to the Netherlands and used i see herons every 100m along the ditches. Now there's more around and they're easier to see I guess. It almost makes me want to get some binoculars.

 

[Toddy]

It's one of life's quiet pleasures is watching birds I'm not a twitcher but they're all around us and most folks don't even notice them.

We live not far from Strathclyde Park, and the herons nest down there. There's a huge wetland beside the loch. Two rivers, two burns and what we call laighlands which is kind of too often soggy ground, and a big flooded area. Ideal for the wetland birds.
Occasionally a heron flies over and sets down on the roof of a house in the street. It seems that it eyes up the garden ponds. Decides agin it and flies off. Weird to see them actually fly, kind of like a dinosaur or cartoon. They have to be careful around here because there's a big rookery in the castle policies and they get mobbed. Same things happens to buzzards and owls flying in the daytime.

 

[Madriverrob]

I live by the side of the River Esk in North Yorkshire , I regularly see a lot of herons in the field to the front and from the twilight activity in the woods behind they roost in their at night ....

 

[punkrockcaveman]

I regularly see a lot of herons. There's a field near me, where they seem to gather in large numbers and sit a few feet away from each other, I assume something to do with breeding?

 

[Kadushu]

I used to visit Elmley nature reserve and see a good number there, amongst other interesting fauna.

 

[saxonaxe]

I see a Heron very often on my lakeside wanders, I think by their nature it is the same one as they tend to claim a territory and can be quite aggressive when defending it.
This one fishes by the old Bridge and can be very temperamental. Occasionally I can get close and sometimes he hides or takes flight.



I've noticed that the presence of other water birds including Cormorant don't seem to bother him. I imagine that's because of their differing methods of fishing. The Ducks and Swans are primarily Veggies or should I say Weedies and the Cormorant is a deep diver, swimmer type feeder, while Old Jack the Heron is a stabber/grabber hunter of the shallows.

 

[Paul_B]

We have egrets too living not far from Leighton Moss. They're often on the estuary but a couple of miles upstream. I think they're a reintroduction success story. We also have healthy bittern population at the moss and Marsh harriers too.

I had some cheap hiking, compact bins from years ago, practika sport 10x mini ones. We let our son play with them when young. So now I have no bins. I wonder if there are any cheap but decent, compact bins to carry on evening dog walks anyone can recommend?

 

[grizzlyj]

We had four together near our little pond last year, this year three. At one point they moved a little way off in a more sheltered area and I thought they may have been looking to nest.
But has anyone seen a baby heron? Every one I've ever seen could be a carbon copy, no just out from the house for the first time looking birds?

 

[chimpy leon]

I see them pretty much everyday by the brook and surrounding marshland where I walk the dog.
Sometimes see them standing motionless in the fields half a dozen of them at a time within a few metres of one another.

It’s a bird watchers paradise round here, not just with some of the rarer birds you don’t often see but with some of the more common species interacting with each other. Crows and magpies can often be seen mobbing birds of prey. Watching the bullocks half-heartedly chase the pheasants is quite comical.

 

[saxonaxe]

I wonder if there are any cheap but decent, compact bins to carry on evening dog walks anyone can recommend?

Quite often 'Cheap' with any optics means risky, Paul. Occasionally with a bit of luck you may find a bargain, but often after a time the good deal turns out to be a loose prism, fogging lenses or some other fault that develops, even with careful use.

For what it's worth, I have used a pair of Bushnell 8x42 binos, sold as the H2o Waterproof design. I've used them for years, they measure 5.5 inches by 4.5 inches and are not featherweight but not too heavy either.
I can vouch for them being waterproof and pretty rugged as I used to stuff them in a Barbour jacket pocket when Wild Fowling. They've had many soakings in muddy water over the years and still perform well.

I'm sure there are cheaper and just as good on the market but I think the H2o's now sell for about £125 which for something that will perform for years is probably not too high a price.

 

[Billy-o]

Just inside the park at the end of my road and overlooking the tennis courts there is a great big Blue Heron roost. I used to live a couple of buildings closer to it, and that braying, prehistoric noise they make would wake me me up prompt at six a.m. But that was as nothing to the baleful racket that went up whenever a Bald Eagle would swoop down through the branches to snatch up a few baby Herons. Noble looking but indolent animals, those Eagle things.

The Herons eat fish. There are are over 50 nests (actually, lots more I think). Herons also crap. So, you can imagine the general state and stink of the tennis courts and surrounding pathways. Best avoided. And, it is interesting, this roost, because Blue Herons tend not to hang out together in the wild, and certainly not in these kinds of numbers. It is rather cute to see them return to the city in early May. In ones and twos, at first. Then gathering in fives and tens, and gradually more. They kind of move together from spot to spot. It is quite a sight to see these large and relatively slow flying and ungainly birds flock and then try to get themselves all to land on the top of a building at the same time.

I remember seeing the smelt run earlier this year. I watched a vast, black shoal of tiny fish swim towards one of the Herons, who was just sitting on a rock waiting on the off-chance of a passing fish supper. Then this lot of tiddlers presented itself in a wave. The Heron couldn't scoff them up fast enough and looked somewhat overwhelmed and at a bit of loss. Quite touching, really.

I am moving from Vancouver to Calgary this Summer. One thing is evident, the Heron numbers have really increased substantially over the past fifteen years. The parks department wrap the base of their roosting trees in copper (?) sheet and clingfilm to deter Racoons etc. from sidling up for a snack. The Parks Board building is very close to the Heron roost, just out of pooping range, and is one of the loveliest pieces of 60s architecture.

 

[Kadushu]

Nice shot by the talented Mr Follansbee

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[Paul_B]

Today's dog walking bird spot was a hovering bird of prey hunting a waste grassland between houses in a North Eastern English town. It was hovering like a kestrel but had long, narrow and flat ended wings. A bit bigger than a kestrel. Light in colour but I couldn't really see its markings as it's in silhouette against the sky. Buzzard? I don't think red kite since its tail didn't look right.

 

[Paul_B]

Looking online I think I misjudged the kestrel, it might be bigger than i thought. Saw a photo of a really light coloured one, the wing shape was right I think.