Three Big Dickie Birds Sitting In An Alder

Nothing unusual in 2015 about seeing two yellow-footed little egrets and a grey heron perched in an alder, one of my favourite trees. Twenty-five years ago it would have been cause for great excitement. Little egrets first appeared in the UK in significant numbers in 1989 and bred on Brownsea Island in Dorset for the first time in 1996.

I made a quick visit to the Bittern Hide on my walk round Seventy Acres Lake today and there was no sign of the third member of the heron family.

I've been reading heron poems and listening to heron songs. I've got Ralph McTell playing as I write this. My children used to perform his Streets Of London beautifully when they were at primary school. 

"Now I cannot speak for everyone
For they got their reasons, all on this road
But, Heron, would that I had your wings
For then I'd know where I would go"

From Heron Song, Ralph McTell