Herons

Once again our wild colony of herons have had a successful year. We have several nests out on the nature reserve, most of which are holding young chicks, and they are at the stage where they are just thinking about stretching their wings and learning to fly.

We have had wild herons at the Centre almost right from the beginning. Even before we started work on the nature reserve a few would visit to see what scraps the otters left behind to feed on. But once the reserve was almost complete, they decided to roost here too and have stayed ever since.

We put out food for the herons (old scraps of fish which are not good enough to feed to our otters) most afternoons around 4:30pm. This is something w have done for many years now, and so they have become less wary and venturing down to the ground while people are around. If you are down on our wetland boardwalk at the end of one of our open days, then you may well get to see these prehistoric like birds close up and even tending their chicks.