With Mrs U heading north to Glasgow for the weekend, I decided to go north too but not quite as far. I called Mark my twitching pal who now lives in Great Ayton in Yorkshire.and arranged to stay for a couple of nights at his house with a view to the two of us going birding.
A Black crowned Night Heron that had taken up residence at Marden Quarry, now long since disused and converted into a small and attractive nature reserve, complete with lake and set alongside a street of houses in Whiteley Bay, was just an hour's drive north from Great Ayton. It was tempting and when news came through that the heron had been seen today we decided to go and try to see it.
Night Herons are only really active at dusk and dawn, I guess the clue is in the name and during the day can be very secretive, perching inside the deep cover of waterside trees and bushes such as willows and often the only view one gets, if at all, is of parts of the bird obscured behind a curtain of leaves, twigs and branches.The bird will often perch motionless for hours on end and waiting for it to do anything, even to make the slightest movement, can often result in immense frustration if not boredom
We arrived at Marden Quarry mid afternoon and parking the car in a side street adjacent to the quarry we walked down a gently sloping, tree lined path and at the bottom looked out across a lake with two small islands and plentiful tree cover all around including a reed bed at the further end
Two other birders, already present looking for the heron told us that it had recently been seen to fly across to the island in front of us and disappear into the trees but was currently invisible. Local opinion was that the heron would eventually emerge and commence to fish from this, its favourite spot We settled for a long wait on a convenient bench, it being late afternoon and the sun so bright it was almost dazzling.
Coots and Gadwall fed on the weed in the lake and a juvenile Sparrowhawk flew overhead calling and was immediately seen off by a pair of Magpies.
Mark went off to make a circuit of the lake, which being small would not take long and left me in charge of his camera, lens and tripod and the promise I would call him if the heron emerged from the trees.
You can imagine my surprise when not long after, another birder came past and told me the heron was at the other end of the lake and was currently partially visible below some overhanging willows at the water's edge. How it had got there is anyone's guess as from all the information we had been given it was meant to be in the trees opposite us.
Palpably it wasn't and I made haste to walk around the lake to the far end, burdened down with Mark's huge lens and massive tripod. Fortunately Mark, at that moment came rushing up and relieved me of them having also learnt about the heron's new location.
We circuited the lake and joined a small gathering of birders and interested public, scrutinising a dark shadowy area by the water's edge just left of a reedbed.
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| The Black crowned Heron's location |
Looking in my bins you could just see the heron's legs, head and part of its body tucked well into the bank, standing on a branch in the water but very much obscured by willow leaves.
We stood or sat watching the heron for a very long time and which barely moved, apart from an occasional tilting of its head towards the water but eventually it began to be more active, well when I say more active do not misundertand me, it moved ever so slowly fractionally to its right, giving us a view of more of its body and now its whole head.
Slowly it gravitated towards the reed bed, frustratingly always partially concealed by the leaves it walked under. On reachng the reed bed it disappeared,.Some gave it up at this point, content with what they had seen of the heron but we hung on in case there was better to come.
Eventually I saw it standing just insde the reeds, well I saw its head but slowly, ever so slowly it walked just inside the reed's edge further towards us and eventually it came out of the reeds and we could see it fully. It had the patience of a saint and moved with infinitesimal slowness and stealth at the water's edge but I only saw it catch one small fish.
A huge carp, startled us, thrashing its bulk on the water's surface amongst a thick blanket of bright green weed and a Moorhen brooded its newly hatched chicks in a nest in the reeds,The heron stood motionless in a small gap in the reeds and contemplated the still water's and weed before it.
Without warning it took flight and flew past us and down the length of the lake to the trees at the other end and was lost to view against the setting sun.It must have landed in the trees on one of the islands but despite searching we could see no sign of it and accepted it had reverted into typical Night Heron ways.
Local fishermen told us it had been here for at least two months but news of its presence had only been put out recently. Not that I am complaining,
There has been a small influx of Black crowned Night Herons into Britain lately with other individuals being found in both Kent and Hertfordshire.. An average of twelve a year are recorded in Britain and it is predicted to be another coloniser of Britain as our climate warms. One pair has already bred in Somerset in 2012 and others will surely follow.
They are normally found in southern Europe and migrate for the winter to Africa
