HERON - KING OF THE WATER

The heron is thankfully common throughout Britain with the number of heronries observed in 2018 being over 1200, although some may not have been active, plus many more nesting in solitude. In the 1870’s this was estimated to only be 400 heronries.

Heron sat on a bridge over the Coronation Channel in Spalding

There is evidence that herons were eaten by Romans with excavations in Colchester revealing heron bone remains amongst other food waste from about A. D. 43. The eating of heron did happen in the Tudor period, but here language can play tricks as cranes were also common and the names of the birds not always differentiated. However, what is clear, is that herons, like swans, were Royal birds with their hunting being the prerogative of the Crown.

Heronries, their nest sites, were highly regarded as assets and enjoyed protection by priories, abbeys and noblemen. Indeed in France King Francis I insisted on the forming of two artificial heronries at Fountainbleu. Despite him being the ‘Devine King’ it appears that such a desire to force nature was not fulfilled as they failed.

Herons can nest on the ground, but success can be limited when they do. Rather they prefer to nest communally in trees sometimes in conflict with other birds such as rooks or carrion crows with the following observed, “in 1775 there was a violent contest, which cost many lives and lasted two years. The herons gained the victory; but it should be observed that they were driven into the fight by their own trees being cut down.”[i]

The problem in the Fens was, and is that it never had many large trees except where the Romans had planted small woods, such as the Lincolnshire lime-woods south of Lincoln or to add trees around large houses and buildings, or for the development of decoys or game cover.

This meant that where heronries occurred they stood out as significant local features with notable ones being at Bardney, Old Leake, Crowland and Cressy Hall near Gosberton.

In 1836 Pishey Thompson refers to an old heronry that was famous in the area near Old Leake, “A large tree, which formerly stood on the western border of the Parish of Leake, and nearly joining the high road from Leverton, was for a very long time, the resort of a very considerable number of that comparatively rare bird the heron. They used to arrive in February to repair their nests; they settled there in spring, raised their young, and left the place in the autumn. The tree was literally covered with their nests; it was taken down about twenty-five years ago.”

This tree was famous as the Heronshawe Tree of Leake. Indeed the name  was applied to the nearby farmstead of Heronshawe Hall (now called Massam Hall) that originally dates from 1576. In 1896 Mr. Cobourn Pocklington refers to the Leake heronry, “In the twenties there was a heronry at Leverton, near the residence of Samuel Brookes, called heronshawe Hall. It was in a single tree and contained a number of nests, and I have heard an old inhabitant speak of the large number of eels dropped by the birds. The trees were felled long ago.”

The Victorian naturalist Mr. G. D. Rowley visited Leake in 1877: “……..the famous Heronshawe tree of Leake. I went to the spot, and received an account of it from a person who remembers it well, and says it was an ash, and had about twenty-five nests upon it. Fifty-five years ago from March 1877 (i.e. in March 1822) an artist took a drawing of the tree; and his sketch was afterwards spun or woven into a table cloth. It was early in the morning and the herons were feeding their young.”

Thomas Pennant in the 1760’s observed eighty nests in one oak tree at Cressy Hall near Gosberton that he described in a letter to Gilbert Wike that evoked the following enthusiastic reply, “For score nests of such a bird on a tree is a rarity which I would ride half as many miles to have a sight of.” Sadly the tree was felled and the herons moved to a sight near Donnington.

In 1886 Cabn. Pocklington of Skirbeck made an impassioned plea in the Boston newspapers for the Corporation of Boston to ensure the herons that had begun to nest in the Bath Gardens at Skirbeck to be left unmolested.

Herons were hunted in various ways: shooting, spring traps, clap nets, and falconry. Sir Ralph Payne Galwey warned against sending a dog after a wounded heron for its bill is formidable. Spring traps were similar to a spring rat trap. On the bait platform there was placed a small spear upon which was fixed a trout or similar fish. The trap was then placed in shallows fixed by a chain to a stake, and the heron, seeing the trout, seized it springing the trap that bit deep into the bird’s beak securely holding it. The clap net  was used with lesser success.  I have read accounts into the 1930’s of herons being shot by gamekeepers to protect fisheries and the gibbeted – hung up as a warning to other herons.

As for the eating of herons, it is recorded more recently than the reader may expect. In 1812 on the 8^th of May a feast of the Hall of the Stationers’ Company in London had six herons amongst the various joints and game that were roasted and presented for eating. In more recent times the following recipe for heron pudding was allegedly used in the kitchens of Oxford University in the 1930’s:

“If the bird is not badly shot and no bones are broken, all is well. If the bones be broken, then discard the bird, as it will only prove a disappointment, due to the fishy fluid escaping from the broken bones tainting the meat.

Cut the breast and leg meat away from the bird and cut into one inch cubes, dust lightly with salt and pepper and a sprinkling of chopped tarragon, and mix in 4ozs. of sliced mushrooms.

Line a basin with ordinary meat pudding crust, fill with the cubed meat mixture, moisten with cream and cover with a further piece of pudding crust.

Wrap up well in buttered greaseproof paper and steam sharply for the first half hour, then gently roast one and a half hours, when it shall be quite done.

This dish can be further amended by adding the juice of a lemon together with 24 small oysters to the cubed heron meat.”

To me this sounds quite disgusting, but such was the pallets of privileged students from the upper classes.

Catching herons by falconry was a highly regarded activity with only one falcon capable of taking on such a bird, the peregrine falcon. The last noted heron hawkers were performed at Didlington in Norfolk. The heronry here was ideal as it was of large size and situated some distance from the water meaning there was a decent area of open ground between the heronry and the water to enable hawking to take place. The worst thing that could happen would be to lose a hawk because it had taken its quarry into water. This was possible with duck provided a specially trained dog was used matched to the hawk to retrieve it unharmed, but these were a rarity. At Didlington the High Ash Club hawked for herons in relatively low numbers with some being consumed by the club members at a grand meal. It was the preparation of these birds  that revealed that rather than the expected eels the herons primary food were pike fry.

On a much larger scale herons were hawked at Loo in Holland by a joint venture of the King of Holland and the English Club of Falconers. In 1852 hawks there took 292 herons, but they did not wish to ruin the heronry so, |”it was the practice to save and liberate every heron that was taken, and it was a point of honour with the members of the club to ride hard enough to be handy at the finish, so as to make sure the heron should not be injured. When liberated a small copper ring was fixed to his leg with the date of his capture written on it, and herons were taken with as many as three or four of these rings on their legs.

This may sound alarming but the older, experienced hawks tended to let go of the heron as they reached the ground at last minute to avoid any concussion.”[ii]

Thankfully herons are no longer hunted or eaten, but they do feature in folklore and legends of this great bird that adorns our wetlands and waterways. To start with are the vast array of regional names: Didleton Frank, Frogeater, Barnser, Barnsey, Heronshawe, Jenny Longshanks, Long-neck, Varn, Joan-no-ma-crank, to name but a few in England alone. But head north into Scotland and we find more names: Tamie Herl, Long-necket haaran, Longnix and in Shetland, Skip Hegrie.

There was a belief in Tudor times that cranes and herons were the same bird with one the opposite sex to the other. Indeed, it was even believed they could change sex. This is clearly wrong but possibly illustrates two things: cranes were as common as herons are today; cranes and herons shared the same nest locations. Thankfully the crane is making a return and is a common sight in the Fens of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire and has been seen in Northumberland.

There was a belief in Norfolk that two broods of herons were reared in each nest and the first brood incubated the eggs of the second brood. This belief may have originated due to the different sizes of young herons in the same nest due to the birds incubating the eggs from day one of laying resulting in staggered hatching. It was also believed that herons incubated their nests by dangling their feet through holes in the bottom of their nests.  A bizarre belief worthy of a comic strip. But, it may have developed from fish and eels found at the base of herons’ nests. For it is a habit of herons that when they drop a fish onto land or in flight  they do not retrieve it.

Understandably herons were thought to be magnets for fish with fish attracting oils exuding from their legs attracting eels and other fish. This belief led to them being killed and various potions made from their carcasses to rub onto fishing lines, eel hives, or bait.

Herons were deemed to predict the weather. If they flew low it was a sign of rain. Or, “if the heron do crake the weather will break”. In Celtic folklore flying upstream signified good weather. Of greater significance was the belief that a heron shrieking low over your house was a portent of death.

Perhaps one of my favourite bits of folklore regarding herons is in Norse mythology where Odin says, “The Heron of Oblivion hovers over the drinker; he steals the mind of men.” In other words, the heron waits until you are so drunk he then takes your wits away.

[i] Thomas Bewick – this was an era when shipbuilding and the expansion of cities and towns was seeing a great number of trees felled .

[ii] Falconry by Hon. Gerald Lascelles