Grey Heron hunting

You've just got to see it LARGE

The grey heron, Ardea Cinerea in Latin and Héron Cendré in French, is not an uncommon wader and can be seen fishing on riverbanks, lakes and estuaries all over - but try to get a decent picture of one ...

So, after a day of door to door leaflet drops for my business and then an afternoon spent refining a sales action plan - I decided that I had had enough of Excel, got my camera and headed out to the lakes.

I saw that the two buzzards were hunting over the other side of the river, so I went and added a few more dead branches to the hide.

It was one of those days for wildlife, I could hear it all, but damned if I could see it, let alone get a picture, apart from the baby rabbits that live near the buzzard's nest ... for the time being at least.

As I emerged form the forest after the said hide building, I approached the lake quietly, as there is a tiny diving bird that I heve yet to photograph as it scoots off as soon as it sees me.

But then, across the way I saw a baby wild boar (piglet? Boarlet ... I dunno, I know the name in French though) drinking on the other side of the lake.
A brief panic set in as I looked around for the mother as they can be lethal with young in tow ... no sign *phew*

I slowly got nearer to the lake and rattled off some pics before it scooted off, but it just carried on drinking. After ten minutes I started wondering how such a tiny animal could have the thirst of a Royal Marine swimmer / canoeist who had eaten a kilo of anchovies - anyway I realised after about 20 minutes that I had some very detailed pictures of a big clod of mud ... DERRRR.

On the way to pick up Hon. Son. N°2 from his rugby training, I spotted this heron fishing on one of the smaller lakes - this lake has absolutely ginormous carp, that can be seen jumping out of the water making a huge splash or munching on roots in the shallows. As the lake is never fished, the fish have become pretty ninja.