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Sunday 6 June 2010

Purple Heron

Purple Heron skulking around in the Denge Marsh reed bed.

The RSPB at Dungeness have history in the making on the reserve, with a pair of Purple Herons expected to be the first ever to breed in the British Isles. My first and very distant views were made after a early morning start to Dungeness on Satuday morning. The reserve seemed to be alive with birds and I was able to catch-up with some of our more common summer visitors to;


A distant comparison here between the Purple Heron and a larger Grey Heron being pursued by a Lesser Black backed Gull

Whitethroat collecting insects in Gorse

Lesser Whitethroat still calling and proclaiming its territory seems a little late in the year. Usually this is something I usually associate with late April - so it's really a sign of our late spring.

Female Reed bunting - seemingly abundant on the Reserve

Sedge warbler with a collection of bugs ready to delivered back to its nest.

A fine adult male Marsh harrier - one of many individual harriers that can be seen hunting in the vicinity of the reserve.


And finally, a look upwards seemed to give a guarantee of up to 4 Hobbies. Beautiful birds, if only they'd all fly a little closer for the lens!

3 comments:

Wilma said...

Beautiful series of photos. The purple heron looks very much like the tricolor herons that I've seen in the southeast US; very striking coloring on both of them.

Clare Gillatt said...

Lets hope the herons are successful - have the eggs hatched yet?

Unknown said...

Hi Nick excellent images really enjoyed looking at your blog from a fellow Natural history nut and photographer. Just returned from London went to Natural history museum absolutely fantastic. I'm new to blogging so visit mine to see what I'm trying to do and feel free to comment and contribute. Will follow your blog with interest. Kev (Picturit)