Netherhall Visit 2nd April 2023
First visit to Netherhall to count the Heron colony for 2023 showed a sharp decline in pairs down from 28 last year to only 17 this year. It could be the poor condition of the trees or alternatively the cold and we weather which may have also held things up. Only two nests had large young and several were too small to ring or had eggs only. Six young were ringed and a good training session with some new people visiting the colony at Netherhall.
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Grey Heron | 6 | 6 |
| Little Egret | 0 | 0 |
18th May 2021 Watlhamstow Little Egret Totals
A belated page on the 2021 Walthamstow Egret ringing sesson.
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Grey Heron | 0 | 0 |
| Little Egret | 19 | 19 |
Walthamstow Heron Visit 9th April 2022
We visited the Walthamstow colony today to count nests and ring a sample of birds.
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Grey Heron | 5 | 5 |
| Little Egret | 0 | 0 |
Methods
The Southern Colour Ringing Group rings Grey Heron and Little Egret pulli (young in the nest) at two sites in the Lee Valley – Netherhall and Walthamstow Wetlands.
Nests are climbed up to and young removed to ring. We also fit colour rings; Heron (White with black letters and a three digit code) and Egrets (orange on the left leg and black or green on the right leg) which allows the birds to be relocated without needing to be recaptured. There are many more bird-watchers looking for colour-ringed birds, so this greatly improves our chances of understanding the movements of the birds from the Lee Valley.
If you see a bird with one of our colour rings, please use the submission form or send details (ring-code, date, location, species) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Ringing totals
2020 year totals
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Grey Heron | 0 | 0 |
| Little Egret | 11 | 7 |
2021 year totals
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Grey Heron | 31 | 31 |
| Little Egret | 19 | 19 |
2022 year totals
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Grey Heron | 14 | 14 |
| Little Egret | 18 | 18 |
2023 year totals
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Grey Heron | 6 | 6 |
| Little Egret | 0 | 0 |
Grand totals
| Species | Ringed | Colour ringed |
|---|---|---|
| Grey Heron | 244 | 96 |
| Little Egret | 184 | 164 |