GREY HERON

I could post on Herons I suppose, every day, working next to the Thames as I do.

But recently (yesterday and today actually), I've seen three young Grey Herons in the air, near the EA building, together.

One can see multiple numbers of Herons in the air near their "Henronry" for example, but is quite rare to see 3 Herons together in the air, away from a Henronry, even when they are young.

NB. Young Herons can be easily distingushed because of their dark grey plumage and faces.

The photo I post is of an adult Grey Heron, (taken by a good pal) at Caversham Weir a few weeks ago, when we all went for a 'river-walkabout'. (I had no camera with me).

I've seen some fantastic close-up views of Grey Herons, on boating trips on the Thames (upstream of Oxford of course), on the river Lee navigation at Tottenham Hale, and now at Reading.

This adult Grey Heron may well be one of the parents of the three young birds I'm seeing in the are now... who knows?

NB. In case you weren't aware, and for all you 'twitchers' out there, this summer seems to be turning into the "Summer of Herons" in the UK. We have been visited by THREE rare (for Britain, anyway) species of Heron in the past month - and I think theyre all still here.
In and around London we have a number of "Purple Herons" visiting us, (like our own grey Heron, but.... er... purple), one "Squacco Heron" in Abbey Wood (thanks Pip who let me know about this),(a dumpy, squat, small, pale pink Heron from the continent, esp Spain), and a "Night Heron" - dumpy pale Heron - small, white, with a black cap, in Rainham marshes I think...