A LONE heron was spotted standing sentinel on a city canal bridge before it flew away, swooping close to the roof of a moving car.
The 'statue still' grey heron was spotted on the Bilford Road canal bridge over the Worcester and Birmingham Canal in Worcester on Sunday.
The person who took the photo said: "The heron was standing so perfectly still I thought at first it was a statue or one of those ornaments you get at garden centres and someone had put it there as a joke.
"But as I got closer it flew away, quite close to a moving car, and it flapped away out of sight. It had very long legs which dangled down as it flew. Quite a few drivers stopped to have a look at it."
Wendy Carter, communications lead at the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust, said: "Whilst we often associate herons with lonesome river banks or water bodies, they’re not that uncommon in urban areas and we often have reports of them perching on roofs.
"This gives them great views across our towns and cities but it also provides them with views of potential fishing opportunities – whether that be natural watercourses or fish-stocked ponds in larger gardens (they sometimes don’t make themselves particularly popular in this regard).
"They’ll often have favoured perches and these will usually have good visibility and line of sight to fly away; the bridge on Bilford Road certainly offers a good getaway when needed.
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"I’m not surprised that the person who took the photo thought it was a garden statue at first – they have an amazing ability to remain motionless for quite some time, an important hunting strategy when you’re looking for food in murky waters.
"They did well to get so close - herons will often fly off as soon as they spot you. They’re bright birds, though, and can become much more used to people where they see a benefit to do so – in Regent’s Park in London, for example, they wander amongst the human visitors, vying for food that people offer them.
"Herons are early nesters and start to settle down to raise their families in February. It surprises many to learn that they nest in trees – for birds with such long legs this seems an odd choice and they appear very ungainly as they land in the tree tops. They create platforms of twigs between branches and they nest close to other herons so readers should keep a look out during winter for trees with herons flying in and out. Numbers of these heronries have dropped in recent years and we’d love to hear from people who spot them when nesting season arrives.
"Herons are rather obvious birds in our urban landscapes but our gardens and community green spaces are home to lots of wildlife. Spotting and watching wildlife, even if just for a few moments, can help people forget their cares and worries.
"More and more studies are showing that spending time in nature can help our wellbeing so we’d encourage people to start noticing the wildlife around them – whether that be a ladybird sitting on a leaf alongside a pavement, a beetle crossing their path, a bee buzzing from flower to flower or a heron perched on a bridge or a roof.
"If readers are curious to know what they’ve seen, they can take a picture and upload it via our short form https://www.worcswildlifetrust.co.uk/wildlife-sightings and we’ll do our best to help identify it."
Herons have rich associations with folklore and myth and appear in Greek legends as messengers of the gods with the bird said to have been sent by Athena to Odysseus.
In some Irish traditions they are omens of bad weather.
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