Hungry herons

[Gretchen]

I live near the Somerset levels and herons often appear in our gardens, I'd assumed looking for fish or frogs in ponds. My neighbour, who suffers from crows and squirrels taking her walnuts,(see my post, Odd crow behaviour) wondered why this year so many of her walnuts had been cracked perfectly in half and were lying empty beneath the tree. Seeing a shape in the tree, she crept out early one morning and saw a heron busy helping itself to the walnuts. When it saw her it flew off. Has anyone else heard of this happening?

[King Edward]

Did she see it actually eating the walnuts, or did she just see it in the tree and assume it was doing so?

[~T~]

I watched someone hand feed them slices of bread in Regents Park so I wouldnt be surprised if they eat a lot more than people think. Walnuts do seem an odd choice though.

[King Edward]

The Wikipedia entry for 'Heron' says "Even more rarely there have been reports of herons eating acorns, peas and grains, but most vegetable matter consumed is accidental.", although it doesn't say what species of heron this refers to. Walnuts though would need to be actually cracked open first before being eaten (at least, if they were responsible for the shells underneath), which I think is quite unlikely.

[Gretchen]

Heron's do eat crustaceans and molluscs which they may need to crack open? Will ask my neighbour soon if she actually saw one do this with a walnut.

[Gretchen]

Originally Posted by King Edward

Did she see it actually eating the walnuts, or did she just see it in the tree and assume it was doing so?

The heron was in the tree most days while the walnuts were there. It has not visited at all during the last few weeks. She did not actually see it take a walnut.

[King Edward]

Yes, I see why she made the association between the heron and the walnuts. Since she didn't actually see it eat any, though, it could just be coincidental so you can't say for certain that it was eating the nuts - herons often perch in trees anyway.

Also, Herons use their beaks for stabbing or catching, then swallow prey whole, so I don't think that cracking things open by brute force is really their style - it's just not that kind of beak.