GREY HERON

The largest group of Grey Herons seen in the county was of 92 birds together in a single field behind Astley Tip on the 19th February 2000, obviously birds from the nearby large heronry.

In 1994 a Grey Heron was caught alive in a fisherman's nets on the River Gambia, West Africa and bearing a leg ring it was found to have been ringed as a young bird at a large heronry on the Greater Manchester mosslands. The bird was kept in captivity for about a week before being released on a nature reserve near Banjul and became the first British record to have been recovered south of the Sahara and had moved 4560 kilometres south-south-west from it's birthplace in order to reach it's destination.