Gangly heron is transformed in flight
Herons are often so still as they wait by the water’s edge that you fail to spot their grey-suited bodies until you’ve scared them into the air. They are dressed like rather fusty old bank clerks with dark grey wings, lighter grey bodies and a white and black striped neck. In flight they look totally different from the gangly dinosaur bird that stands by ponds and rivers. Their legs stick out at the back and they hold their heads close in to their shoulders. Their huge wingspan means people often mistake them for birds of prey on first glance as they fly. Those wings swoosh like a cape around the heron for its first few flaps away from the ground.
The Grey Heron is everywhere in London: in parks, streams and on the foreshore of the Thames. It builds its huge, messy nests in trees and you can see some particularly good heronries in Regent’s Park,Walthamstow Wetlands and Richmond Park. You’ll be as likely to hear a heronry, in fact, as these birds are dreadful neighbours, always squabbling with one another as they wobble about in the trees.
Another similarly long bird is the Little Egret, a small white heron. There are quite a few egrets around London, particularly in Walthamstow and Bushy Park. In the breeding season, they grow lovely long wispy feathers on their heads.
The most ridiculous of the London herons is the Bittern. This really does look like a grey heron that’s trying to dress up as a python, with brown and ochre stripy plumage and a snaky neck. These birds are rare and shy. That stripy plumage camouflages them perfectly against the reed beds in the Barnes Wetland Centre and Lee Valley Country Park where you’ve got the best chance of getting near one. A real prize for any naturalist is hearing a bittern “boom”: a loud call like someone blowing across the neck of a milk bottle. Once you’ve ticked this off your list, you’ll know that you’ve been properly sucked in to enjoying our wild city.
Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of the Spectator and author of The Natural Health Service
Have you spotted any herons in the city? Let us know in the comments below.
