Monday 18 June 2012

Herons Day 2

I started to watch for the heron about 4.30 this morning - there was no sign! I stood for ages with the camera ready and saw nothing except the usual bunnies! Eventually about 9am I gave up, came downstairs, made coffee, put toast on, looked up the field there there was a heron! In fact when I got the long range lens out it was two together!



Back upstairs to see two beautiful big birds in the field, they are different, I am guessing one is male and one female as they are territorial usually.


At first they stood close together, then moved apart. One marched off into the bushes and I thought he would fly over to the pond to try fishing - but Bob (beagle) disturbed them and they flew off.

We visited an aquatic centre and bought a water jet heron scarer and have now removed the netting - it just spoiled the pond!


Sunday 17 June 2012

The Heron

Our young beagle, Bob, just came running down the garden growling and looking back, tail between his legs. We thought someone must have got over the fence at the top of the field and be walking down. For Bob to be running and worried though is unusual, he is usually brave and loves people. He is more likely to have gone to meet them, but no, in this case a heron was swooping out of the sky down to our fish pond!

Having reached safety and looked back Bob realised it was a bird and turned to chase him off.

We put netting over the pond, we are convinced a heron cannot get the fish, it is two feet deep and has straight sides down to the bottom so there is no-where for a heron to stand in the water and fish but it may explain why one of the plants has been tipped off it's block and into the bottom of the pond twice in two days! The plant is not balanced well enough to stand the weight of a huge bird being added to one side of the pot.

Bob has not taken his eyes off the pond since, he has chased the heron off again three more times, but heron has spotted dinner and will be awaiting his chance!

I have every camera we possess ready but I am always too far away to catch any recognisable footage :-( I have stood in an upstairs window with the camera in hand for a long time, I will return in the early morning :-) The bird will return!