Horace the Heron comes in from the cold

David O'Leary • Published 26 Feb 2010 12:52 0 Comments

AN Innerleithen man has been left stunned by the attentions of a leggy bird.

Howard Purdie, of Bridgend, awoke one morning five weeks ago to find a hungry heron casually strolling about his back garden.

And since then, the normally skittish bird, which he has named Horace, has returned every morning for a feed of chopped liver and haddock.

Many wild birds have been struggling to find food during the recent cold weather as many rivers and streams have frozen.

The retired pensioner said: "It was 7am and still dark, but I could see the poor bird was in a bedraggled state and looking sorry for himself. He was obviously very hungry.

"I found some smoked haddock in the fridge, cut it in pieces and he gobbled up every morsel. He also accepted a corned beef sandwich from my neighbour Mrs Edmonds.

"I named him Horace after the ancient Greek poet and philosopher, who rather like a heron, stood about a lot thinking deep thoughts and composing Odes."

Herons are usually notoriously difficult to get close to, as many exasperated birdwatchers will testify, but in this case, it seems hunger has overcome caution.

AN RSPB spokesman said: "I've never heard of people feeding a wild heron such as this. This is very unusual behaviour from a heron, who are usually a quite shy bird, easily frightened when in contact with humans.

"One can only imagine that other food sources must be very scarce for it at the moment."

Scottish SPCA Wildlife Rescue Centre Manager, Colin Seddon takes the same view.

And he has urged Howard to minimise his contact with the bird.

He said: "We can understand why the gentleman has been feeding the heron, but there is a danger that it will become too familiar with human contact and will begin approaching other people. Herons have very sharp beaks and can cause injury.

"We see no issue with the gentleman leaving food out for the heron and staying indoors and away from the bird while it is visiting his garden during this extremely cold period, but we would advise him to refrain from feeding the heron as the weather improves to encourage it to seek food for itself in the wild."

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This article appeared in Peeblesshire News 26 Feb 10

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