Grey Heron, Male

It came as a shock to me this evening that the Herons that I keep seeing around where i live are all juvenile grey herons and not this majestic male in full adult plumage. It was wonderful to relax and soak up something of Castle Bay on Lindisfarne. There was hardly a breath of wind and the tranquilness of the water made the journey up to here from Manchester all the easier.

I guess in many ways I should start at the beginning, rather than the end of my journey here today. Took a tram-ride into Manchester central with a good friend of mine and ended up meeting one of my former lectures from Northern College at Piccadilly who was also heading off to catch a train south. I decided to walk around so of the more colourful back-streets of Manchester, where building have been used as giant canvases for art work. I also wanted to find St Deny’s book shop, but while I found their old address, I could not remember for the life of me, where they had moved too, (however, I did find out later that day, they are at the Cathedral).

From here is was another tram-ride back to get the car and do some food shopping, before heading off to Lindisfarne. Well, I got as far as the M60/M66 and M62 interchange and I thought of Bamford Chapel where I was based as a student for three years while at theology college. Then I thought about some of the people and one person in particular who had been very supportive there and while we had not spoke for a while I thought I would get into contact. Before I knew what had happened I was already traveling down the M60 and onto Bampford. Found a shaded place to stop and took a few photographs of the old Chapel, before ringing David to see if he was in, and he was, a little taken aback that I was only ten minutes from his house! Catching up with friends and making them smile at the drop in nature of a visit is always pleasing in ministry, especially when you have not seen them since your student days, when you could sit down with them and reflect on the days past.

From here I ventured on northwards to Lindisfarne, getting there by 7pm. I knew roughly where to find St Cuthbert’s Centre was in relation to the only village on Holy Island. For the next two week The Bothy was to be my home with the kitchen in the chapel and during the day a very public space with visitor popping in and out. However, before and after the time the centre is open I get to have my breakfast and my evening meal in this wonderful open space. The centre is often used as a gallery for people to share their work, mainly art of photography to a wider audience.

While I don’t wish to make anyone jealous, but if you know the artwork of Mary Fleeson of Lindisfarne Scriptorium, then she had some here enlarged pieces of artwork on display in this church gallery all to myself: there were so many inspirational pieces to mull over while eating or generally drinks a cuppa, sipping a glass of excellent red wine too.

After unpacking the car, making something to eat, (as this is a self-catering for the next two weeks) I wondered off to stretch my legs after a long drive and walked to The Ouse (I’ve nickname it Castle Bay) and sat on a bench and spied very quickly the steady movement of a heron fishing off of the Riding Stone in the receding waters. Having watch it for some time, thinking why don’t you come closer, it started to make it’s way closer to where I was sitting. Bit by bot the heron got closer and by this time the ambient light was getting less. However, not to be outwitted by my environment and having stated a couple of days ago how difficult it was to see a heron up close and photograph it before if has taken flight. I waited, hardly moving, waiting for the the heron to come a ever closer. It got to within twenty feet of me and then I was read to take picture. At ten frames per second I was not going to miss this chance, not at this distance. The light by this time was not great at 2215 in the evening and while it reminded me of the Orkneys and the longer days. I was aware that I was asking a lot of the sensors in the camera to find the enough light to pick out the detail in order to focus on the heron. In order to take a reasonable image at this late stage in the day.

It was only when I saw this wonderful Grey Heron up close that I knew I had never seen one in the wild before like this. Sure I have seen Grey Herons, but they were always juveniles and so were easy to spot as Grey Heron, as they are grey all over. So, this is were I came in...

Grey Herons can found anywhere in the the UK, but not in the Highlands of Scotland and are a rare sighting in the orkneys, except for the very east of the islands. Their habitat is near shallow edges of lakes, slow-flowing rivers, marches, or estuaries. however, you can find them standing in fields or perched in trees. In most cases they prefer to nest in tall trees, however, they have been known to nest on the ground, or on a cliff ledge. Their diet is manly roach, perch, sticklebacks, and even goldfish from the garden pond! On the coast the heron I saw this evening would be after eels, flounders, wrasse and crabs. The one I saw caught a flounder, before taking his catch to the shore, where it was dropped before picking it up and swallowing it in one. It was a few minutes after this the heron saw me, took one or two looks at me and decided that flight was better than sight.

I constantly wonder how God’s Creative Spirit made all they wonderful things come into being, but while we are custodians of this plant, we need to take care of what we have and not be reckless with what we have been given, but to nurture and care for it, as God would expect of us...