View From The Shed by Shaun Finnie - NOCTURNAL THRILLS

NOCTURNAL THRILLS

Here in South Yorkshire's Dearne Valley we've been lucky enough to witness visits by many Heron species over the years. Grey Herons, Little Egrets and our beloved Bitterns are year-long residents at our reserves and it's not unusual for us to give temporary home to Great Egrets and, increasingly, Spoonbills too. A Cattle Egret has been enjoying the company of the cows on our Adwick Washlands site recently as well. If ever a bird was suitably named it's this one. It's a Egret and it's almost always seen in the vicinity of cows. There's a clue in its name.

And there's more; the magnificent Glossy Ibis belongs to this extended family of birds too and one of those came to Old Moor for a visit five years ago. We've also had the odd really rare migrant drop in, such as the Little Bittern that came for a while in the summer of 2015. Notice the capitals there, it's a Little Bittern not a little Bittern. Who says grammar isn't important?

That's eight Heron species that have been recorded in our valley over the last decade with differing levels of regularity, but we can now add a ninth to this list. A Night Heron has been spotted several times over the last couple of weeks at Adwick Washlands, less than five miles from Old Moor. The chances of seeing it are slim – many (including me) have tried, most (including me) have failed – but I promise it has been there for over a fortnight. Would I lie to you?

For those who aren't familiar with this particular rarity, a Night Heron is about the size and shape of a Bittern with colouring approximating that of our common Grey Heron. Add a blood red eye and a lovely long white streamer feather coming backwards from the top of it's head and you'd be able to recognise one of these chaps should you be lucky enough to stumble upon one. In all seriousness you'd have to be very lucky indeed – or patient and dedicated to a professional level – because they are mainly nocturnal and quite secretive. The few sightings of 'our' new star bird have been at the latter end of dusk when it starts its night shift looking for unlucky frogs, fish, mammals and just about any other source of protein that they can find. They've even been known to rummage through rubbish dumps in other parts of the world. Let's hope that they don't bring that particular habit to our shores.

We call them by the generic name 'Night Heron' as they're the only one of that subset of the family that are found in Europe but there are six other Night Heron species to be found around the globe, mainly in Asia and the United States. While to us they're simply Night Herons, their full name (“their Sunday name” as my mum would say) is the Black-Crowned Night Heron, so-called because of the black cap that separates it from all the other Night Herons that you might meet in your travels. You should be so lucky.

Regular readers will know about my love of words and their origins, even in languages that are foreign to me. What can I say? I'm a verbophile (work it out), so I was delighted to learn that their scientific, Latin name is Nycticorax Nycticorax, derived from nuktos meaning 'night' and korax meaning 'raven'. The 'night' part is easily explained as these birds are rarely seen out of their beds until the sun has dropped over the horizon but 'raven'? I was puzzled as to why this might be until I heard a recording of its call. It does indeed resemble the unmistakable “Bronk!” of our largest Corvid bird.

A pair of these Night Herons attracted lots of birdwatchers to a site on the River Calder at Ossett, West Yorkshire in April. Is ours one of these birds? Honestly, I don't know. I've heard conflicting reports so maybe, maybe not. If it is, then what has happened to its mate? Has it died? Has it found a better looking bird and eloped? Or were they just best buddies travelling together for a while and their paths have now diverged? So many unanswered questions. Whatever the truth, we can be sure that this particular bird won't be with us for all that long. Once the weather starts to turn colder it will join its fellow black-crowned cousins in migration to tropical Africa.

But is this sighting something that we might expect more of? Could global warming and the expansion of these birds' viable breeding range mean that we might have heronic chicks in the future? Well the first confirmed English Night Heron breeding pair was in Somerset in 2017. Purple Herons have combined to make baby Purple Herons on these shores too, the first recording of that coupling being at Dungeness, Kent in 2010, so it would seem likely that the entire extended family group are able to breed in our green and pleasant land. Will we see unusual heronlings here in the Dearne Valley? Well if Spoonbills can breed successfully up at Fairburn Ings, anything is possible.

Whatever the future brings, it seems that, for now at least, this group of birds quite like it here in my home Valley. It's quite a large family too, with more related birds than you'd think. So if anyone hears of a Common Crane or a Squacco Heron around these parts, please contact me, pronto. I'll be there I a flash. In the meantime, here's our sightings board. You're more likely to see the birds listed on it than many of the rarities in this blog but you never know, there's always a chance...