Lakeside bird standing tall
AT THIS moment, our local heron is standing on a hidden rock in the lodge at the bottom of our road.
This heron has been around for a while, since it was a fledgling a couple of years ago.
It spent most of its time in a fairly sheltered spot on the local river – it’s actually a man-made goit – and in the trees that line that waterway.
Now, it is stretching out and looking for food in the old mill lodge – and possibly making itself obvious for a bit of passing love interest. I do hope so. I would hate to think that this elegant bird will spend its life alone, not interacting with others just like it.
The grey heron is common in many lakes around the UK, we have loads at our Brockholes nature reserve off the M6 at Preston.
Most of us will have seen them standing in rivers or flying overhead as you drive along the motorway.
In flight, they really look like prehistoric birds flapping majestically overhead.
Reading up on some of the birds of prehistory and the flying pterodactyl, I am pleased we are looking up at the heron and not fleeing for our lives.
Herons can be up to a metre in length, with a wingspan of nearly two metres, making them one of the UK’s biggest birds – only some geese and swans are bigger.
However, we don’t have many birds that stand taller than the heron.
If you come upon a heron standing in water, it will be stock still, looking into the water, waiting for its next meal to swim by.
They can also eat small mammals, like moles and they might even visit your garden to raid you pond if you are lucky!
Sometimes, we pass quite close to our heron, it feels safe with the trees between us.
More often, though, it steps forward in the water, throws out those long wings and flaps before taking off. It will head further along the river, into a local lake or land in a nearby, safe tree.
They are impossible to miss, with those slow flapping wings and that long body and bill.
Herons have a grey back, with long legs, a long, white neck, bright yellow bill and a black eyestripe that continues as long, drooping feathers down the neck.
They fly with their long legs stretched out, but their neck pulled in.
Herons nest in heronries, which are colonies in the tops of trees.
Here, they make their large nests out of twigs and lay three to four eggs.
The young will fledge from the nest after about one and half months.
Over lockdown, our village, Brinscall, became popular with local people seeking somewhere nice to spend an hour or so.
The heron has certainly added to this wild and beautiful area, at the foot of the West Pennines.
It certainly provides something special for my morning and evening walks and I am disappointed if I don’t spot it.