Heron Day at Bretton Lakes

Submitted by julia on Tue, 15th Jun 2010, 4:55pm

On Sunday 9th May a group of volunteers assisted at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Heron Day at Bretton Lakes.

This is the one day of the year the Wildlife Trust have access to this reserve and they enabled 1,100 people to enjoy the spectacle of the young herons. There are approximately 60 nests on the two islands on the lakes. The young herons, although only 6-8 weeks old are almost fully grown, but have not yet fledged so create quite a show. The chicks can last longer between meals so the adults are catching food further afield. They do not feed in the lake at this stage - saving this for when the chicks leave the nest and are learning to fish for them themselves.

We ran craft activities, making fingerpuppets and 'herons on sticks'. We also collected some plant materials and used these to create large temporary pictures and sculptures. Everyone one was very imaginative - have a look in the gallery at some of the creations.