01 Apr 2003 - 01 Jan 2004
Herons in the Heart of London
Regent's Park

Come to Regent's Park next weekend (Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th April) and help celebrate the distinctive grey heron at the Park's famous heronry. Wildlife for All is giving people the opportunity to learn more about this fantastic bird with free activities and games for the whole family. There will be staff on hand to tell people more about herons and our telescopes will enable visitors to enjoy an amazing view of the baby herons in their nests. Come along to test your skills with our feed-the-heron game or make your very own heron mask.

The activities are part of a London-wide Heron Weekend, an event designed by the London Biodiversity Partnership to celebrate this large and dramatic bird. The heronry in Regent's Park is one of the largest heron colonies in London and one of the closest to a city centre in the whole of Europe, being less than a mile from Oxford Street. More than 25 pairs of herons nest in the trees growing on the islands in the lake.

Activities run on both Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th April in Regent's Park from 10am-4pm, at the bandstand and at the mobile information unit which will be located close to Clarence Gate, near Baker Street.

Source:
Joint

For more information contact:
wildlifeforall@royalparks.gsi.gov.uk, Tel. +44 (0)20 7935 7430
Editor's notes:
London Heron Weekend is organised by the London Biodiversity Partnership to raise the profile of herons and their need for large old trees and reasonable water quality.

In 1949, Richard Fitter the naturalist said, "It can be asserted with a fair degree of certainty that neither the heron nor the spoonbill will ever again breed in London." Well, leaving aside the spoonbill, the herons first nested in Regent's Park in 1968. The birds originally nested in just one tree but when that tree was damaged in the storms of 1987 most of them then moved to the island they still use. There were 10 nesting pairs in 1970 and this has grown to 27 pairs as of last year. These increases, seen also in other London's heronries, have been mainly due to the gradual improvements in water quality across London.

Once the chicks have fledged, the herons tend to move away from the Park to the Thames estuary and north London reservoirs. Small numbers however do remain and in January the birds return again for the breeding season.

Grey herons are among the most familiar of our local water birds and next to the mute swan the heron is our largest common bird. You will see them stalking through the shallows with long deliberate strides, neck muscles tensed for spearing. Eventually a fish will get careless and the heron's long neck shoots out with dazzling speed, the sharp bill stabbing its prey. Herons build their nests from branches and sticks up in the highest trees. Nests are reused, unless they get blown away and the old ones are huge platforms 3ft across. Most herons stay for the winter but some do fly as far afield as France, Spain and Portugal.

Wildlife for All is a three-year partnership project between The Royal Parks and RSPB funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Its aims are to bring a wide variety of people and communities across London closer to their local wildlife in the eight Royal Parks through an exciting and innovative activities programme, which includes wildlife watch points, an education programme and mobile information unit.