Herons a little boy and other wildlife

I was pleased to see a pair of herons flying over today, daily we see a lone heron fly over, but to see two is very unusual.

We have lived here for almost twenty-five years, an elderly gentleman whom we met in our early days here, told us wildlife in this area many years before had been much greater than at present. He spoke of myriad frogs and toads, grass snakes, slow worms and many, many herons flying to and fro over where we lived. (He had lived in the same dwelling more than sixty years ago.) We have a river nearby and he told us if as a boy he walked left along the river, he would come to an enormous heronry, which sadly has long since disappeared.

A couple of years later I told my then five year old mad about nature, grandson this, immediately he said, "Can we go for a walk by the river?" "Why?" I queried. "To look for their beaks and feet." was his quick reply! "Beaks and feet?" I queried. "Yes" he responded, "that's the only part left now".

As a child my grandson collected many creatures; beetles of all shapes, colours and sizes were to be found in his pockets and scurrying around my kitchen where they were often released to be watched. Worms carried around sometimes in his pockets, more often in his hands, ants were kept in a glass tank and hours spent watching and tending them. Spiders were bred in a huge glass bottle garden jar in the bathroom, the webs built inside were fascinating and dense, and for more than a year Ric found food for them, released the young when too many built up ---occasionally forgetting to put the cover back on their home causing us sometimes to be overrun with spiders! In other containers he kept different types of stick insects, in the conservatory he had salamanders, he grew up with both cats and dogs, if he found an injured creature it was brought back to be nursed and carefully tended until it could be released. Dead creatures were brought back to be dissected, I well remember the excitement of the little boy, dashing indoors to tell me how far down the lawn the intestines of a dissected rabbit stretched, and insisting I watch while he measured them.

I thought when Ric grew up he would be something to do with wildlife, but although he has retained his love for and interest in nature it has not been his work.