We live in a very rural area .. not a shop for miles and just a pub and a church .. our house backs onto a large field occupied usually by polo horses (very laa de dah!) and large oak trees. The horses are off playing polo so the field has been left to go wild, the grass is getting long and the dandelions have run amok.
You can usually see the odd blackbird or crow popping its head up amongst the grass and just recently we have seen lone crows buzzing the buzzards who are getting a little too close for comfort to the nesting sites. We came home yesterday and as we were parking next to the field saw three crows in fast pursuit of a massive bird. On first glance we thought "Ahh, the buzzard's back!" but then on closer inspection, ie - we looked
properly, we saw they were buzzing a heron!
There then followed a mad scramble to exit the car, grab binoculars (we have learnt well never to leave without them!) and have a better look, but by the time the thumbed wonders that we are managed to get our acts together, they'd all disappeared.
I've never seen one around here before .. I've seen more owls and bats than herons. It's always a treat to see one, but I have only ever seen one from far off, usually when on a train or off in the distance when we're in the car. The closest I ever got was when I visited my Mother and saw one fly over her house as we arrived .. they always strike me as such prehistoric looking birds.
Anyway, that's my heron tale
