Monday 26 September 2016

Excellent news: the young Grey Heron which had its beak caught in a bit of plastic mesh has been released. It came ashore near Bluebird Boats, and Mateusz managed to catch it in a net. With a bit of help he disentangled the mesh, and the bird was soon released. This video was taken by an onlooker.


Later I saw it on one of the reed rafts at the east end of the lake, with its feathers still ruffled but looking perfectly calm -- I don't think herons are capable of looking happy.


This is the thing that was caught on the heron's beak, a nylon net which had contained a ball. The knob is where the cardboard label was. Carelessly dropped in the lake, it became a deadly trap.


Over its five-day ordeal, the heron had been coming quite close to people, almost as if it sensed that they could help, but it panicked when anyone made a move. Mateusz was able to catch it not only because he had a suitable net (which has to be hastily mended before it was used), but because the bird was on the other side of a barrier left over from the swimming event, and thought that this kept humans at a safe distance.

After that, everything else was an anticlimax. Both the pigeon-killing Lesser Black-Backed Gull's mate and the Lesser Black-Back with pale legs were having a go at pigeons, without success while I was there. The second gull had to be content with a bit of bread it stole from a goose.


One of the Moorhens in the Dell sprinted along the edge carrying a leaf ...


... and plunged into the stream and added it to the latest nest.


The four chicks trotted around on the bank.


The white Mallard was preening his shining feathers at the Lido restaurant.


But he was outdone in splendour by a Starling on the railings.


A heavy shower brought up worms, and a lot of Blackbirds came out in the Flower Walk to dig them up. This is an immature male who has not yet developed his yellow bill and eye ring.


A Mistle Thrush was pulling out wireworms under a tree near the Dell. It looked very dark in the shade, and at first I thought it was a Song Thrush, but the pattern of the spots on its front is unmistakable.


A Magpie was exploring a puddle, in which it found several unidentifiable tiny creatures among the dead leaves.


Both the Little Owls near the leaf yard were in the chestnut tree next to the nest tree. But both of them were in places where it was impossible to get a reasonable picture. Later the female owl flew over to the nest tree and posed obligingly.

20 comments:

  1. Hi Ralph,

    I was one of the volunteers to catch the heron this morning. He tried to bait him for a bit of chicken and he was near us but as soon as my partner stretched his hand to take off the fluff he moved back, he has a good reflex. So we were about to give up and go home but then I had the sudden idea to ask the boathouse for a net. So we went in with another volunteer lady. The shop assistant was not very helpful at first but we managed to convince him to talk to the manager ( Matteusz ) who agreed to give it a go so there we went!

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    1. Thank you so very, very much!

      The poor Heron looks so fragile and small. They are such tall imposing birds, we forget what very fragile things they are. All breath and air.

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    2. Mateusz loves birds and is always very helpful. He has excelled himself today, and many thanks to him and to Jenna, who put the plan into action.

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  2. YAY!!!!!
    I've been refreshing your blog obsessively for the last half an hour, waiting with bated breath. Thank God, and thank all who were involved. You are heroes.

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  3. He would never get it out on his own, this would never dissolve and he would have starved to death if it was not for all the public interest to help him.

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  4. Great news about the Heron. Those guys did a great job! Hope it gets a decent meal now!!

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  5. That was lovely to watch and a good deed done by all, just proves a point "put litter in bins"

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  6. I wonder whether the park staff should clean the bottom of the lake more often, I don't think it has been done at all. But that's just a wishful thinking.

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  7. I opened up your blog Ralph and was relieved and eternally grateful to all the people involved in saving the young Heron from a slow death. Hopefully now he will be strong enough to feed himself up to full strength. It was great to see all the action involved in the rescue.

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  8. We're all absolutely delighted, and no doubt the heron is too. There's not much that can be done about litter in the park. But these little bits of mesh are quite dangerous, and not only to herons.

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  9. I noticed he has a small grazing wound on his leg as well. Hopefully that will heal quick.

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    1. There are also some slight abrasions at the base of his bill, probably from being netted. But that's a small price to pay for survival.

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  10. He had the graze before he got caught today, I guess from previous attempts. I will bring him some raw chicken bits tomorrow.

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    1. Lucky bird. He needs feeding up (if indeed it is 'he'). He seems to be favouring the east end of the Serpentine and the Dell at the moment. I think that before this he was planning to become the main scavenger at the Dell restaurant.

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  11. I will try to look out for him there. Is he normally near the fencing?

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    1. On the rafts, on the edge of the restaurant terrace, or in the stream at the lower level of the Dell.

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  12. Lovely news and THANKS to all concerned. A happy outcome for the heron, and all of his admirers!

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  13. Well done to all involved - wonderful news, it has made my day!

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  14. That is fantastic happy news about getting the netting off the gray heron's bill! That looks like a badminton shuttlecock, but that is an awful lot of netting hanging on it and you have to wonder how it ended up in the lake. I great topic for a precautionary message regarding dumping anything with netting into the lake.

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    1. I now have the bit of plastic netting that caused the problem. Originally it encased a small novelty plastic squeezy ball. The button gathered the netting bag over the ball and allowed a cardboard label to be slotted underneath it. But I can't understand how this thing got wrapped so tightly around the heron's beak. I have tried stabbing it all over with a pencil, but it never grips.

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