well, that's what matters It's something I've never seen!
Tanmay Dixit said
Tue Oct 1 3:28 PM, 2013
And there was me thinking I'd seen something odd and uncommon! ;)
Still a nice thing to see I think - something I may not see again in Britain.
Thanks to all for info
Steve Christmas said
Tue Oct 1 2:15 PM, 2013
For results of the long running German study of grey herons see: http://www.proring.de/projekt_graureiher.html Regular movements to Spain, North and West Africa.
Ian McKerchar said
Tue Oct 1 6:15 AM, 2013
I've made counts into four figures at individual reservoirs in the Middle East, where they are all passage migrants!
richard howells 2 said
Tue Oct 1 5:58 AM, 2013
Just returned from watching migration in Bulgaria seeing at least three flocks (25,22,10) of Grey Herons heading south near Burgas
Steve Suttill said
Mon Sep 30 9:02 PM, 2013
If you look at this BTO webpage:
http://blx1.bto.org/birdfacts/results/map1220.htm
It shows ringing recoveries of Grey Heron and you will see plenty of records of birds ringed in other European countries and recovered in the UK.
Ian McKerchar said
Mon Sep 30 6:43 PM, 2013
In 1994 a Grey Heron was caught alive in a fisherman's nets on the River Gambia, West Africa and bearing a leg ring it was found to have been ringed as a young bird at a large heronry on the Greater Manchester mosslands. The bird was kept in captivity for about a week before being released on a nature reserve near Banjul and became the first British record to have been recovered south of the Sahara and had moved 4560 kilometres south-south-west from it's birthplace in order to reach it's destination.
Tanmay Dixit said
Mon Sep 30 6:31 PM, 2013
I was at Spurn yesterday and saw a flock of large birds (10-12 individuals) flying over the sea. They were quite distant but coming towards me and as the cam e closer it became apparent that they were grey herons. They were flying high as though migrating and I wondered if anyone had had any experience of migrating grey herons. Of course they could have been blown off, say, Flamborough Head and then blown in to Spurn by the (extremely strong) Easterlies but it certainly appeared as though they had come in off the sea from Scandinavia or somewhere in Eastern Europe.
Does anyone know of anything like this happening, as I have always though of grey herons as mainly sedentary? One thing to note is that, even at that height, they seemed to be mostly juvs.
well, that's what matters
It's something I've never seen!
http://www.proring.de/projekt_graureiher.html
Regular movements to Spain, North and West Africa.
http://blx1.bto.org/birdfacts/results/map1220.htm
It shows ringing recoveries of Grey Heron and you will see plenty of records of birds ringed in other European countries and recovered in the UK.
Does anyone know of anything like this happening, as I have always though of grey herons as mainly sedentary? One thing to note is that, even at that height, they seemed to be mostly juvs.