Page:VCH Essex 1.djvu/283

 BIRDS 138. Red-footed Falcon. Fain vespertinus, Linn. A rare straggler. One was shot at Alresford on May 31, 1873 (Zoologist, 1873, pp. 3615 and 3688) : another at Buttons, Stapleford Tawney, on May 21, 1897 (Hope) ; another at Bradwell-on-Sea on October 17, 1901 (J. H. Gurney in lift.). 139. Kestrel. Fain tinnunculus, Linn. Perhaps our commonest hawk, but nowhere abundant and certainly decreasing. Though harmless, or nearly so, seldom touching game of any kind, it is a ' hawk,' and as such comes in for a share of the relentless perse- cution directed against all ' hawks,' good and bad alike. 140. Osprey. Pandion halialtus (Linn.). A scarce and irregular spring and autumn or winter visitor, met with chiefly in the estuaries of our rivers, but occasionally further inland. 141. Cormorant. Phalacrocorax carbo (Linn.). A common visitor to our coast from autumn to spring : occasionally met with inland after severe storms. 142. Shag. Phalacrocorax graculus (Linn.). As the foregoing, but less common. 143. Gannet. Sula banana (Linn.). Not very uncommon off our coast from autumn to spring : sometimes found inland after very rough weather. 144. Heron. Ardea cinerea, Linn. Locally, Frank, Frank-hern, and Hernshaw. A common resident, seen frequently at nearly all seasons of the year on the marshes near the coast. There are however only four regular heronries in the county. By far the most important is that at Birch Hall (the Rt. Hon. James Round, M.P.), numbering some two hundred nests. It is believed to have been started by a pair which came from Brightlingsea some thirty-five years ago, when the Magens estate there was sold and the pur- chasers persecuted the herons which had long nested there. The first pair nested on a large oak tree in Chess Wood. By the year 1877, there were about one hundred nests. In 1878, owing to the cutting down of some trees, the herons removed to Calves Pasture Wood, where they again increased largely. Later they returned, for a similar cause, to Chess Wood, where they now remain, care- fully protected by Mr. Round. Our next largest heronry is that in Wanstead Park, the property of the Corporation of the City of London. It has been established for a century or more and is most carefully pre- served by the Conservators, the nearest public footpaths being closed during the nesting season. It has been increasing steadily for some years, and now numbers about fifty nests, which are placed in some tall elms growing on an island in the largest sheet of water in the park. Next in importance stands the heronry at St. Osyth Priory (Sir John H. Johnson, Kt.). It was established by a single pair which came from Brightlingsea in 1872, when the heronry there was destroyed ; and, being protected, they increased steadily. There are now from thirty to forty nests, built for the most part in trees growing on two small islands in one of the ponds in the Nun's Wood. The smallest Essex heronry is that at Boreham House (Lieut. -Col. Tufnell- Tyrrel). It has been established thirty or forty years, but has been removed more than once during that time from one site in the park to another, and has been several times almost destroyed by shooting the young birds. Recently, however, it has been protected, and in the spring of 1901 there were about twenty-five nests. There can be no doubt that there were formerly many other heronries in Essex. Thus Norden speaks (i 594) of one at Tolles- hunt D'Arcy, and Holman (about 1710) of another at Belhus, Aveley. The names Heron Hall and Herongate at East Horndon imply the former existence of a heronry there. A heronry existed for many years, as stated above, in Heronry Wood, near the church, at Brightlingsea ; but, when the estate was sold, about 1870, the heronry was destroyed by the purchasers, and the present proprietor (Mr. John Bateman) has failed in his efforts to re-establish it. Formerly, too, there was a heronry on Walton's Hall Farm at Mucking. Isolated nests occur not infrequently. 145. Purple Heron. Ardea purpurea, Linn. An accidental straggler, which has occurred in the county at least once namely in a wood near Maldon in April 1839 (Essex Literary "Journal, 1839, p. 126). 146. Great White Heron. Ardea alba, Linn. A very rare straggler. One was observed on several occasions in and around the estuary of the Stour on October 3, 1823 (Trans. Linn. Soc. xv. 40). Another (which seems to have been identified correctly) was seen on many occasions in June and July 1901, beside a small lake close to the house in Lexden Park, near Colchester (Sir M. E. Grant Duff). 245