Tame Heron

[Jim Murray]

Though these pics of an almost tame heron may be of interest. Spotted whilst mulleting in W. of Ireland. Apparently has almost entered the flat hallway on occasion

 

Anyone else seen anything quite like this....?

 

 

[andyml]

>>Anyone else seen anything quite like this....?<<

 

Hi Jim...

 

yes i have ...in Holland. Herons often stand next to anglers waiting for a titbit...i've fed a few myself when on the quiver. I'm also told that when the Dutch Canals freeze over in winter the herons come to the market squares in towns and are fed on herring from the wet fish stalls by people who take pity on their hunger.

 

By the way...did we ever meet in Chicago?...at one of the Carp Classics run by the Chicagoland Bank Anglers in the 90s?....

 

tight lines <')Andy<

[dant]

There was a Heron that would come and sit right next to me when I used to fish a jetty on the the River Yare at Brundall but always in the Winter when the picking must of been tough. He'd often end up with a belly full of left over dead baits..

Another used to arrive almost immediately when I fished South Walsham Staithe off the River Bure, this young bird was very bold and would often make a dart for fish I was swinging in, I nearly had him feeding from my hand at one point but on an occasion he missed the fish and made a hole in my palm, that soon eneded that experiment...

[ColinW]

I used to fish a pond where a rat would sit on my welly eating sweetcorn, holding the grains in its front paws while it nibbled away. I don't suppose it was the safest animal to adopt!

[Steve Burke]

Some of you may remember the time I was fishing one evening just below the weirpool at Fermoy on the Blackwater in Ireland. I kept hearing a rustling in the bushes behing me. Turning round I saw a heron that appeared to be begging. Indeed it was as it quickly swallowed a couple of dace I caught!

 

At the local pub that night I asked if there was a tame heron thereabouts and no one believed me - until Peggy showed them a video of the event!

[Leon Roskilly]

>>Anyone else seen anything quite like this....?<<

 

Hi Jim...

 

yes i have ...in Holland. Herons often stand next to anglers waiting for a titbit...

 

Yep, when I spent a few months working in Leiden, fishing one of the canals that run through the town, it wasn't unusual to be joined by a heron sitting quite close watching you carefully, and getting excited whenever the float twitched.

 

(But they'd be off as soon as they spotted another angler who appeared to be catching more.... !)

 

 

Then there was a farm pond in Cornwall, where you had an audience of patient cats, all intently concentrating upon your float.

 

The pond was stuffed full of small rudd, and it was surprisingly difficult to swing one to hand, safely unhook it and return it, without a cat appearing out of nowhere and running off with it.

 

 

I also had a young gull in the West Country who cautiously waddled over to me to beg some of the herring that I was using for bait, as I sat upon a beach as the sun began to go down.

 

I started off hand-feeding the creature, who first tentatively allowed me to stroke it, then to pick it up and hold it in my arms like a baby as I emptied herring guts down its throat.

 

The problem was getting rid of it.

 

It just followed me about everywhere, until I chased it back into the sea, worried that it's tameness might get it into trouble with less kindly folk, or a foraging fox, as darkness descended.

Edited November 9, 2007 by Leon Roskilly

[dant]

Whilst swinging another strange multi coloured Sea Perch in whilst on holiday in Montengro this year all hell would break loose as around 20 of the local stray cat population would try and get themselves ahead in the pecking order. I don't think I've ever seen such mangey moggys..

[bampah]

On my golf course we have a large heronry

The herons quite often ignore both the Dorset Stour and plentitude of well stocked lakes, to do their 'fishing' in the rough.

They can be regularly seen, flying off with a squeaking vole in their beaks.

[five bellies]

I wish the one that keeps clearing out my pond was a bit tamer, so I could get close up and personal with it and wring its Bl00dy Neck.

[Jim Murray]

By the way...did we ever meet in Chicago?...at one of the Carp Classics run by the Chicagoland Bank Anglers in the 90s?....

 

Hi Andy. Yes we did meet there. Think my very first US carp was on one of your rods

 

Still getting over there though more Canada these days. Hope all's well,

 

Jim.