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| Hungry Mouths - © Edward Nurcombe |
As I walked around the
Reserve over the last week I found it hard to believe that less than a month
ago we were caught in the grip of the coldest winter for over 30 years! The ice
has since cleared from the lakes, the days are getting longer and at times,
when the sun was shining, it has felt rather spring-like.
As I made my way along the
Wet Marsh Path, adjacent to Tween Pond, I could hear a familiar sound coming
from high in the trees on one of the islands – the clapping bills and loud,
harsh chattering calls of Grey Herons that were busy tending to their nests. For
this species in particular, spring and the breeding season had already begun.
The Grey Heron is the
largest European heron species and is a top predator in the freshwater
foodchain. They mainly feed on fish, amphibians and invertebrates which they
catch with their dagger like bills. However, Grey Herons are not exactly fussy
eaters and will also feed on small mammals, and occasionally even small birds
and nestlings.
Grey Herons have a very
prolonged breeding season that begins as early as February when most birds will
return to the same nesting site they had used in the previous year. Once any
repairs and renewals are made, four to five eggs will be laid per clutch that
will hatch after 23-28 days of incubation. Grey Herons typically nest communally with
other herons to form a colony or heronry.
Despite being present on the
Reserve for a great number of years, the Grey Heron first bred on the Reserve
as recently as 2004 - following a disturbance at their traditional breeding
site nearby in Brandshill Woods. That year the heron’s nests were widely spaced
throughout the Reserve and were even spread along the Trent
Valley towards Nottingham.
It was not until the following year that the herons came together within the
islands of Tween Pond to form a more traditional communal heronry.
Seven years after it was
first established the Attenborough heronry has now become one of county-wide
importance - second only to the heronry at Besthorpe Nature Reserve. In 2010 a
total of 32 nests were counted on the Reserve, many of which can be easily
observed from the Main
Path Bridge
or along Wet Marsh Path.
Grey Herons are one of the
species that suffer greatly during severe winter weather and this year’s
heronries census will give us one of the first indications of the effect that
the freezing conditions over the last few months have had on the Grey Heron
population at Attenborough.
