The Purple Heron sits in the well populated category on my UK bird list, seen badly on numerous occasions. All the ones I have seen in the UK have been very skittish, unapproachable, and easily flushed. We had one at Otmoor RSPB for a few weeks back in the summer of 2016 but, despite a number of visits, I only ever had frustratingly brief flight views. So when pictures started to emerge of a seemingly very confiding individual only 40 odd miles from home at Whelford a visit was a no-brainer.
The weather looked fairly favourable for photography yesterday so, after completing a number of domestic chores, I drove the comparatively short distance to Whelford near Fairford in Gloucestershire arriving around mid-day.
The heron had taken up residence at Whelford pool nature reserve and had been favouring a small wet area of recently cut reeds conveniently in front of a small hide only a short walk from the road. Not too surprisingly, the hide was pretty full with standing room only when I arrived but after 30 minutes or so a seat became available and I settled in to hopefully wait for a visit. Other birders told me that the heron had last been seen around 11:00 when it had showed well in front of the hide before flying into some trees some distance away. By all accounts it had fed well and was probably dozing somewhere digesting its fish brunch.
The hide was noisy with people chatting and catching up on news and I fretted that, what is normally a very skittish bird, would not tolerate this level of disturbance. My concerns increased when a Grey Heron landed briefly right in front of the hide before immediately becoming spooked at the level of disturbance and flying off.
After 3 or so hours staring at the same spot of cut reeds I was starting to think this was not to be when the heron flew across the lake and landed right in front of the hide. The level of noise and general commotion increased in the hide but, contrary to my expectations, the heron appeared completely un-phased and commenced fishing in the small open areas of the cut reed.
The Purple Heron is a scarce but regular vagrant from continental Europe to the UK with perhaps 10 or so records per year. It has a wide breeding range in central and southern Europe and the southern and eastern Palearctic. It is similar in appearance to our Grey Heron but is slightly smaller, more slender and has darker plumage. It is an attractive and elegant bird with a long thin and powerful looking beak and mainly buffish chestnut plumage. It is a much more evasive bird than our Grey Heron favouring densely vegetated habitats near water such as reed beds, making the confiding nature of this individual even more remarkable.
Our Purple Heron was a very well-marked juvenile, i.e. hatched this spring. It was a most adapt fisher, freezing in a statuesque pose for several minutes before stabbing its beak into the water, more often than not emerging with a small fish to eat. Sometimes it would disappear into the reeds for a while only revealing itself to us by the waving reeds as it stalked its prey. It would then reappear and slowly walk back and forth in front of the hide almost as though it was putting on a matinee performance for us. It’s enormous yellow feet, ideally suited to clutching onto sunken reeds, looked very ungainly when out of the water. To say it was confiding hardly does justice to its complete disregard for its human admirers. I pondered why this youngster was so different to its normally skittish and elusive brethren, perhaps this was its first encounter with homo sapiens? It’s funny slow ponderous walk remined me of John Cleese’s famous rendition of the Ministry of Silly Walks. This continued for perhaps 15 or 20 minutes before the heron, presumably appetite abated, flew around the corner and out of view. In common with everyone else in the hide, I departed for home elevated by my stunning purple experience.
Footnote - My blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!
Excellent photos, beautifully written and an interesting commentary on the psyche of Homo sapiens (var: twitterati).
ReplyDeleteLyn writes an article for our local Parish Magazine and this reminded me of a recent extract that adds, perhaps, some interest to heron physiology apparent in the photos.
"Herons’ necks have a permanent kink, the result of an elongated vertebra (the sixth from the skull), which attaches to its neighbours at a right angle instead of end-to-end. The kink forms a kind of hinge mechanism, enabling the bird to lunge forward at lightning speed and with astonishing precision. The shock of impact is absorbed by ligaments between the vertebrae." (added with Lyn's knowledge.)
Very interesting. Wonderful series of photos too.
ReplyDelete