tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2526736757651414061.post6710039488183507267..comments2024-03-29T10:02:55.374+00:00Comments on Nigeness: Herons - Not What They Used to Be...Nigehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13314891387515045404noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2526736757651414061.post-80676449517602538822012-02-02T13:59:32.233+00:002012-02-02T13:59:32.233+00:00I believe everybody should browse on it.I believe everybody should browse on it.рестораны в барселонеhttp://www.vbarcelone.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2526736757651414061.post-42733735889347810552008-11-04T02:25:00.000+00:002008-11-04T02:25:00.000+00:00Wow -- great posts all. First Nige's bucolic saunt...Wow -- great posts all. First Nige's bucolic saunter among the sedge of herons, then the four following.<BR/><BR/>Apparently herons are "weedy species" -- as are humans, sharks, roaches, and gingko trees. We are adaptable. Change the environment, change our food source, even change the weather, and we'll rise to the occasion. David Quammen is the guy who has written so well about this. In a time of mass species extinction, the heron won't be a casualty. <BR/><BR/>But, Malty, do they really eat other birds? I thought herons just ate fish. More adaptability if they're happy to eat fowl as well as fish and apparently flesh. No doubt they'll try Selena's golf balls too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2526736757651414061.post-13505126761467405122008-11-03T12:50:00.000+00:002008-11-03T12:50:00.000+00:00It is almost uncanny, Nige, how closely your Sunda...It is almost uncanny, Nige, how closely your Sunday walk did replicate my own - across the fields in the vicinity of North Mimms. Nor are the local Herons of the sort to fall behind an emerging trend. They have long since taken to catching mice (or moles?) rather than fishing in the near-by brook. And no frog, dead or alive, has ever caught their eye. Though it is massively to the credit of a resident pair kingfishers that a rural tradition is still upheld. For what was once genuinely rural, has become mock-rustic, and if there’s any fishing to be done, it is for golf-balls....they come tumbling down the stream - scores of them every day - if you can be bothered....Selena Dreamyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11629908887644614404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2526736757651414061.post-47408481594003152412008-11-02T19:07:00.000+00:002008-11-02T19:07:00.000+00:00There have always been plenty of herons in Batters...There have always been plenty of herons in Battersea Park and they nest there too, so I wonder if they ever quite abandoned inner London. And, no doubt, from time to time they provide " a festive dish" for desperadoes forced to camp out under the bushes. My brother saw what he thought was a peregrine falcon eating a crow at the end of his drive today. It was too big to be a sparrowhawk and the wrong shape and colour for a buzzard. My guess is that it could have been a goshawk, this being in leafy Hampshire. If it was a peregrine, it sounds pretty far from expected haunts by way of cliffs or church towers. The great thing is that there's still plenty of mystery at our garden gate even in this overcrowded corner of the isle.Markhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06074816573442173758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2526736757651414061.post-71157496533526711562008-11-02T15:12:00.000+00:002008-11-02T15:12:00.000+00:00Thanks Malty - your herons sound a whole heap more...Thanks Malty - your herons sound a whole heap more hard-working than the Carshalton spiv. Apparently the collective noun for herons - for which there must be little call, as you imply - is siege, or sedge, or hedge. Hmmm...Nigehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13314891387515045404noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2526736757651414061.post-5074555087543269062008-11-02T15:06:00.000+00:002008-11-02T15:06:00.000+00:00What a wonderfull description of an autumn walk Ni...What a wonderfull description of an autumn walk Nige, I was there with you. The heron is a bird that is part of our daily lives, my neighbour and myself are the fortunate owners (custodians) of large ponds and living fairly close to the Tweed have become part of the local heron populations circuit. Long ago they decimated the trout population, the ponds are fed by a burn, the minnows and stickleback rarely have a chance to grow, surprisingly a fairly large number of frogs survive the herons beak. Our major problem is that we have a very large resident population of crested newt (a fact that we have never divulged to the local nature nags). The heron consider these to be a particular delicacy although the newts only really appear at spawning time. Between us we have a number of pairs of moorhen who supply a constant source of munch upons, in the form of chicks, to both the heron and the resident stoats.<BR/>The heron often perch in the oak or birch trees at the back of the ponds for hours, no doubt busy with toothpick in claw. Although described as the silent killer of the marshes, when the do call (screech) the effect is blood curdling.<BR/>The most unusual sight I have seen was some years ago on the banks of the Tweed at Mertoun bridge, at least two dozen young heron gathered together, I wonder if BO could explain? No doubt he would say that was a herendous number.maltyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02936465848907794425noreply@blogger.com