The " Heronry " on Wanstead Flats.

Manawatu Herald, 4 June 1892, Page 2

The " Heronry " on Wanstead Flats.

♦ Some thousands of London pleasure seekers visit the " heronry " at Wanstead Flats. Thia " heronry," with its seventy or eighty couples, possesses a " charter uninterrupted " for nearly four centuries, and now

that the colonist ava busily engaged either in the construction of new nests or the redecoration of old ones the daily occupation of the herons may be watched ■- if a special 'vantage bo obtained, as it easily may be with groat interosi. Situated on an island with a largo timba 1 growth, the lata season and the absence of foliage gives t > the onlooker a favourable opportunity of watching the work of the repairers and builders, an interest which in increased during the period oi incubation. The birds' nests are perched on the highest trees, and tho peculiarity of the heron's incubation is that the bird sits astride the nest (with its long kgs straddling tmtsido) instead of " squatting " in it, a3 tha crow or pigeoil. The pools at Wanstead Flats supply the herons with plenty of food in ordi nary times, but when the young have to be fed excursions must be made farther afield, as the staple dietary of the " chicks " consists of small eels, which the herons at Wanstead appear to find in plenty in the River Lea. ,