ES Views: Wild London: London’s a healthy home for herons

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The grey heron is one of London's largest birds
17 February 2017
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February sees one of London’s largest birds, the grey heron, take lumbering flight towards communal nesting sites — heronries — high in the tops of trees by rivers and lakes. Solitary by nature and often seen standing motionless by the water’s edge or deftly stalking prey in the shallows, they can resemble prehistoric pterosaurs or storks circling high in flight.

Their thoughts now are of nesting, and among the branches they canoodle with their partner, reinforcing pair bonds with much jousting and clattering of bills. Each pair builds a large platform of sticks high in the tree, often re-using the same nest year after year.

Although they nest communally they squabble, fight with their neighbours and steal twigs from each other’s nests — they may even attempt a sneaky seduction of a neighbour’s partner.

Things quieten down for several weeks as they incubate their turquoise eggs, before the racket begins again as the adults feed their hungry and demanding chicks. The copious fishy droppings of a heronry will whitewash branches and the ground below; sometimes eventually killing the trees in which they nest.

London’s polluted rivers and lack of fish meant the heron was a rarity in London by the 1940s, but as we’ve cleaned up our watercourses the herons have returned, with more than 300 nests recorded each year. You can now see heronries at the lakes in Regent’s and Battersea parks, at Heron Island in Walthamstow Wetlands, by the Thames in Richmond and at other waterside locations across London.

Later in the year some gardeners may even spot a heron in their garden, attracted by the reflections of a pond and the lure of a frog supper. Heron will take almost anything they can catch and swallow, including eels, ducklings and even large rats.

Herons are a sign of healthy waters — and a sign of a healthy London.
@Wildlondon
London Wildlife Trust campaigns to protect the capital's wildlife, nature and wild spaces

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