Be gentle with herons. They break

THE other morning I woke early in my bunk on the boat and I did what I always do first thing in the morning —- I pulled back the curtain to check on the weather.

There, only a few metres away, was a heron standing motionless in the shallows, illuminated by the early morning sunshine.

Seen at close range it was a beautiful bird. The formidable yellow beak seemed fused to the front of the skull. In fact it doesn’t only seem that way. The beak actually is an extension to the front of the skull which in turn is connected to half a metre of well-muscled neck. This combines to produce a spring-loaded harpoon gun of huge power. Though the analogy to a harpoon is not totally accurate because herons don’t spear their prey. They open their beaks when they strike and grab it. But the power of the strike is enormous. In France, a man once went to try and help an injured purple heron. This is a smaller and more slightly built species than our own grey heron. He was killed by a single peck to the skull. So be cautious if you encounter a heron at close quarters.