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.

Deer

I was lucky enough to bump into a deer as I walked down the drive this morning. I don’t know who was more surprised. It was after half past eight, not normally the time to see deer there; we start to get
traffic down the drive about that time. It was wandering along the drive near the main gate, nibbling delicately at the greenery. As I trudge along rather more heavily than I should, it caught the sound of my footsteps, threw its head up, glared at me, then bounded into the undergrowth and away. Such a beautiful creature. I took the sight as an omen that this entry should be based on deer.

It is the roe deer that inhabits Strathmore Estates. Mainly a solitary creature, the roe deer is a unique species in that the growth of the embryo is delayed within the doe until an embryonic signal is transmitted that “kick starts” the embryo into growth. In most mammals, it is the female that sends a hormonal signal to the embryo that begins the process; in the roe it is the other way round. Hunted nearly to extinction in the 1700’s, revived by reintroduction from other countries, the population here is one of the success stories of the estate; in fact it could be said we are victims of that success as the numbers have increased greatly due to the more widespread cultivation of crops such as oil seed rape and winter cereals. Having fields of winter crops available to nibble means less competition for winter grazing; the result being an increase in the number of twins and triplets born. Management is mainly by stalking, the clients coming mainly from Scandinavia for trophy bucks in the first instance, then later in the year culling the old and infirm animals that are unlikely to survive the coming winter.

Generally speaking the deer was one of the most important animals in Celtic history; all of it had some use: meat for food, the skins of course but also tendons for bow strings, antlers for digging. Because of its importance it was symbolic of life and rebirth. The stag became Cerunnos, God of fertility and the Lord of Beasts. In Celtic tradition Cerunnos is one of the five oldest creatures in the world, said to hold the sun in his antlers to bring light to the land each spring. As the oldest animal, Cerunnos was also one of the wisest so hunting the stag became synonymous with the search for wisdom. On the other hand, the doe is synonymous with gentleness and innocence.

The white stag is not albino but has a condition known as leucism which turns the hair from the normal colour to white. The white deer was also known as a Judas Deer as it gave away the rest of the herd but was also seen as a messenger from another world. Arthurian legend stated that pursuit of the white stag was akin to the quest of mankind’s spiritual knowledge and to see a white stag was to know that the quest was nigh.