Heron Incubation well underway

Our livestreamed pair of nesting herons have now settled into a period of incubation. All being well we expect their three eggs to hatch around the second week of March. Until then things are likely to be quieter for a while.

Three eggs is a normal size of clutch for the Grey Heron. These were laid at two day intervals which is also normal. The first egg was laid at around at 17.26 on 10th and the second at around 16.20 on 12th. Both of these events were captured on film by our livestream. (See this earlier news item about the laying of the first egg.)

The third egg was laid on February 14th - a particularly wet and gloomy day on which our solar-powered livestream unfortunately failed to start. So we missed capturing the laying of the third egg on film but it could clearly be seen in the nest from the start of the next day’s stream on 15th. Since then the parent birds have been continuously incubating their eggs.

The male and female birds are sharing the incubation . A changeover of incubation duties has generally been occurring once or twice a day. - e.g. see this footage from around 8.30am on February 16th. Here the male (who is a bulkier bird with a more extensive patch of black on his head) is handing over to the female.

To look back on other events so far please visit our YouTube channel where you will find a complete library of all streams to date. As mentioned there was no stream on February 14th. Nor, for the same reason, was there one on February 8th. Otherwise there has, at time of writing been a stream every day since February 4th. As the season progresses the days will lengthen and the sun will strengthen. So we hope and expect that the times when no stream is possible will become less frequent.

To view live pictures of the nest please visit our livestream page.