Last April I discovered that a heron was visiting our garden pond soon after dawn, making alarming inroads into the frog and newt population, which necessitated some emergency work, installing a protective net. This spring I protected the pond with criss-crossed wires from the beginning of the frog spawning season, when the pond was a living frog soup and the carnage from a heron visit would have been horrific. Earlier this week I removed the unsightly protective wires, assuming that the heron wasn’t coming back. Too soon. It was back again this morning. I'm guessing that it's the same bird, but there's no way of knowing.
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Great photos of the raider. When I had a Heron visit early mornings last year it took off at the slightest movement so I never managed to get a portrait for the rogues gallery.
ReplyDeleteThanks Midmarsh John, I managed to sneak these out of the bedroom window but when I tried to get closer it was off in an instant. Talk about mixed emotions - I was pleased to have such a handsome bird visiting the garden but it was a bit unsetting to see the frogs and newts disappearing down that long neck. There's a heronry about a mile away from here, as the heron flies, and I suspect it does a regular early-morning tour of local garden ponds.
ReplyDeleteCan understand the mixed emotions; not something you'd see every day in the garden, but what a sight to see.
ReplyDeleteGot to have some admiration for his tenacity though.
I have to admire his panache too - he usually landed on the garden path and casually strolled up to the pond, as though he owned the place. I think my mistake was probably to skim the duckweed off the pond - then he probably saw the water surface glinting in the morning sun.
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