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Every few minutes I moved closer and closer to him. His neck sunk between shoulders, relaxed. A memory flashed back of years ago, working in a veg garden and having to deal with a persistently aggressive male turkey. Not today, not the Grey Heron – all is safe and restful.
In deep thought?
And so it was, that on this magical afternoon, we both stared across the water with a fixed gaze.
The black elongated crown feathers form a wispy crest and rest on the birds back.
Today a heron – one day a wolf, a leopard and a lion!
Isaiah 11:6 (New American Standard Bible)
And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little boy will lead them.
Motionless except for the occasional drink of Regents Park water – no plans to take off. The wonder of just sitting there together on the grassy bank.
I start to throw small pebbles in the water near him which evoked slight interest.
And I would never have guessed that a Grey Heron had a tongue like that!
The first thing that struck Gordon and I as we walked into Regents Park (from the South East entrance anyway) is how tame the herons are and how many of them there are!
While Gordon read a book, I spent a goooood 90 minutes with a flock of 12 Herons. Siesta? Now and again one would take off or return with slow wing beats, wings strongly arched and trailing legs.
Six of the twelve.
Heron-charades. I think this mean “Let me show you who’s in charge here”
RANGE:
Grey Heron is relatively common resident and widespread in most part of Europe. It is also found in Asia and some parts of Africa. We can observe northern bird’s migration southwards during hard winters.
Grey Heron
Ardea cinerea
BIOMETRICS:
Length : 90-98 cm
Wingspan : 175-195 cm
Weight : 1020-2070 g
LONGEVITY : from 15 to 24 years
Genesis 1:21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
(It was easy to get these last beautiful images off the net, please let’s all respect the owners and not use any of these for commercial purposes). The rest of the images are mine and the same respect is due - thank you).
