Hmmm – a break of around 2 years on the website. Not due to lack of interest, rather lack of time, and a preference for binoculars rather than a camera. Today was special – a life tick with a new bird. A Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea) was found yesterday at Le Grand Pré, a reserve local to me and managed by La Société Guernesiaise – an organisation to which I happily give a lot of time. I didn’t manage a visit then, but was up early this morning and down to the hide, hoping it would still be there. 45 minutes later, and pleased to see a late-staying Snipe, I thought I was out of luck. Then a Coot flushed it out from the reeds at the far end of the pond.
It stayed in front of the reeds for a minute or so and then disappeared – very elusive. It reappeared a while later and this time it was visible for a good five minutes as it hunted a frog.
It is an adult bird with a strongly coloured blue-grey crown with no sign of brown. Also indicative are the black lines on its face and neck. The uniform dark red-brown plumage at the carpal bend ‘elbow’ makes it a probable male. It has ‘overshot’ on its spring migration, further north than its breeding grounds on the continent.
Several species in the Heron Family are extending their range noerthwards and westwards. Little Egret has done spectacularly well in Guernsey since the 1980s and there is a breeding colony in the Bailiwick. Cattle Egret are seen year round and in increasingly numbers. Great White Egret, still classed as a vagrant, has been seen every year for the past eleven years. Purple Heron would be very welcome as a more regular visitor and there is every likelihood that this will happen with generally milder winters.
Natural history of the Bailiwick of Guernsey 