Shades Of Grey Heron

I thought I had my Blip in the bag when I shot some long-tailed-tits in the hedge south of our field. I was wearing a Fat Face top featuring them. :)

I visited Fishers Green this afternoon and sat in The Bittern Hide, hoping for the eponymous bird but keeping my eyes skinned for anything else of interest. A heron was preening and fishing and mallards, coots and moorhens were squabbling. 

As the light was fading, Skye the lovely collie and his master came in. I haven't seen them for ages. The man calls me Skye's auntie. :) We watched a small murmuration of starlings wheeling over Seventy Acres Lake between the transmission towers against the weakly sunset-lit sky. As time went on more birds joined the flock. While I was telling the man a story a sparrowhawk appeared and the entire murmuration dropped as one into the reed bed. Wish I could have captured the spectacle.

When I looked at my pics on screen I thought how mutedly lovely the heron's plumage is. I've posted herons many times before so went for this crop to ring the changes.