Mooney Goes Wild has launched Nestwatch 2018 at a heronry in Dublin’s St. Ann’s Park – part of the Dublin Bay Biosphere. Watch the live stream here.
To give us further insight, RTÉ Radio 1 contributor Niall Hatch shares some fun facts about these amazing creatures.
Grey Herons build very heavy, sturdy nests high in treetops, as can be seen in the heronry in St. Anne’s Park.
They deliberately choose locations that offer the best protection from the wind: if you watch the live camera feed during blustery weather, such as we have been experiencing in recent days, you will see that although the branches are moving around furiously, the nest remains remarkably still.
As you can see on screen, heron nests are made of large sticks, woven and interlocked to form a rough basket.
The sticks are generally collected by the male of the pair; he then passes them to the female, who takes on the job of actually constructing the nest.
The same nest may be used for many years, with the adults repairing and adding to it as necessary at the start of the nesting season.
Even though the chicks are quite well grown at this stage, their parents still use their bodies to shelter them from heavy rain: the chicks are not yet fully able to regulate their own body temperatures, nor are their feathers fully waterproof.
If they were to get very wet, they could quickly chill and die from hypothermia, so their parents remain very attentive.
Niall Hatch is a regular contributor to Mooney Goes Wild on RTÉ Radio One. A keen birdwatcher since the age of two, he is the Public Relations, Branches & Development Officer with BirdWatch Ireland.
