Heron

Yet again I disturbed an animal on my wanderings round the castle grounds. This time it was a heron; poised in the shallows of the River Dean in search of a few tasty minnows for his dinner. He stood statue-like in the shallows; so still I hardly noticed him until at the very last moment he took to the air and wafted slowly away.

The United Kingdom has a large population of herons, this most statuesque of water birds, second in size only to the swan. They are largely solitary, living up to 25 years and using the same nest (made of piles of twigs and leaves) year after year. Legend has it that a heron’s nest has two holes in it so that the bird can thread its long legs through the holes to sit comfortably on the nest. In a warm winter breeding begins in February with perhaps 2 clutches of eggs; 2-7 eggs per clutch. There is documentary evidence of nests (heronries) in Norfolk that date back as far as the early nineteenth century when the heron became a prey bird for falconers near Thetford. There are over 14,000 nests recorded in the United Kingdom proving that the bird has made a good recovery since a slump in numbers during the 1960’s.

The bird I saw is the grey heron, the most prolific here in Scotland. Its slow wing beat of only 2 beats per second seemed far too slow to get such a large bird airborne, its legs dangling behind and its sharply pointed head bobbing back and forth as each beat drew it along the water course. Their diet mainly consists of small fish or frogs but it is not unknown for them to take small mammals or even rabbits in a lean season.

Like all of our native species, the heron has its place in mythology. In Celtic myth the bird was seen as a messenger of the gods and as the heron mates for life, images of the bird were often used on Celtic wedding bands as a symbol of fidelity. It was also a symbol of patience, solitude, intelligence and independence. Seeing a heron foretells a change in luck (either way) and to see one heading toward the source of a river is a sign of coming rain. Oddly enough, the heron I saw headed along the burn towards Forfar. We had rain for several days after I saw him so maybe he knows better than the Met. Office after all.