It’s been a long and anxious wait for the news that the UK’s first purple heron chick has fledged successfully – and here’s the first picture of the youngster taken by Philip Eglise.
At some point soon the purple herons will be heading south to spend the winter in Africa – let’s hope they return next year. If they do, they will find they have missed the Public Inquiry into the proposed extension of Lydd airport. We now know that the Inquiry is scheduled to start on 15 February 2011.
As the purple family hide themselves away in some papyrus-fringed African wetland, my colleagues will be continuing the pains-taking work of assembling our case. The Lydd story is now featured, here, on the Guardian’s new Piece by Piece project. The purple family also get a mention here in an article by the Guardian’s Juliette Jowit looking at the state of site conservation in the UK.
Do visit Dungeness this weekend if you can - it's the Dungeness Wildlife and Countryside Fair. I will be there lending a hand on Sunday.
And as an extra treat – here’s the common crane family in flight over the Nene Washes in Cambridgeshire – the youngster (Cambridgeshire's first for 400 years) is flanked by Mum and Dad.
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