Purple Heron Ardea purpurea

College Lake - 10th May 2008


Photos copyright Dave Bilcock

Dave Bilcock and Paul Reed were fortunate to watch an adult PURPLE HERON fly in to College Lake from Tring at about 6:30am.  It landed on the willows in the centre of the marsh. The word was put out but before anyone else had arrived it had flown off towards Cheddington. It was only present for about 15 minutes.

Latimer - 13th-20th November 2006


Above 3 Photos copyright Nic Hallam

The bird appears dark in the above photo due to very wet conditions.


Above 3 Photos copyright Dave Bilcock


Lower Photos copyright Dave Ferguson

This bird was found by an Steve Blake who was unable to identify it.  He called Herts birder Joan Thompson and described it over the phone.  Joan then asked local birder Lee Evans to check it out.  Amazing it turned out to be the first county record of this species for over 35 years!  The word was put out and a good numbers of local birders managed to see the bird before it flew off west early afternoon. 

The bird was present again throughout the week, although it was very elusive at times.  It gave many birders a chance to see this local rarity.

To see an article by Lee Evans, that gives the full story of the finding of the Purple Heron plus more photos click here. (This is a PDF file of 412KBytes)

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