A visiting heron takes off from our ash tree

As Helena ate her breakfast I looked down the rather wild garden checking on whether the bird feeders needed replenishing. I stepped outside to top up the suet pellets in the feeder hanging from the trellis just outside the patio doors. When I slid the door shut I looked further down the garden and saw the unmistakeable shape of a heron on one of the side boughs near the top of the ash tree. I fear it may be heading down to Jess' pond.

I immediately walked across the room to fetch my camera as I knew you could never know how long the heron would remain on its perch. Sometimes it has been a minute, and other times it has stayed for several hours. A heron regularly flies up the valley from the river Frome a few hundred yards away to the right. There is a natural pond upstream in the small Lime Brook in this tributary valley called The Horns and I think the heron uses this tree as a staging or resting post on its way between feeding places. It certainly flies over the rear gardens of our street as a friend living a few doors away down the hill says she often sees one trying to feed on her fish in their garden pond.

I waited for a while taking odd pictures as it preened its feathers extensively. I’ve noticed that before a flight it makes of its own accord, rather than through being disturbed, it will stretch its body and slightly extend its wings. Sometimes, as it did this morning, it bends really low and forwards as if it was going to attack a prey in a river or pond. Being thus alerted I was ready when it took off.