392 



FIELD NOTES. 



BIRDS. 

 Desertion of the Eshton Heronry. — For several years 

 past the old heronry at Eshton, near Gargrave, has been de- 

 creasing in the number of nesting pairs of birds, until this year 

 visitors to the Great Wood at Eshton were disappointed to 

 find it altogether deserted as a nesting site by the herons. 

 As reports respecting the new site were rather conflicting, 

 I am indebted to Miss E. H. Wood, who is at present in charge 

 of Eshton and Flasby Halls, for obtaining the desired informa- 

 tion from Mr. Bradley, who has been the gamekeeper on the 

 estate for many 3/ears. He reports that ' about six year- 

 ago they began to go to Lord's Wood, on the Skipton side of 

 Sharper (a prominent hill), and they have gone year by year 

 in increasing numbers, until now there are none left.' Lord's 

 Wood, ' as the heron flies," will not be more than a mile and a 

 half from the old site in the Great Wood at Eshton ; but to 

 reach it the pedestrian would have to make a considerable 

 detour owing to the difficulty of crossing the Eshton Beck. 

 I fancy, however, that the gamekeeper's memory is rather 

 short — like the rest of us in these strenuous times — because 

 when I was through Lord's Wood on March 19th, 1910, there 

 were already two pairs of Herons nesting there, and possibly 

 another pair in a corner of the wood T did not visit. There 

 were certainly three pairs of birds. The late T. H. Nelson, in 

 ' The Birds of Yorkshire,' stated that the Herons left Flasby in 

 1865 to come to Eshton. This is quite correct so far as it 

 goes ; but I have found rumour and tradition so persistent 

 in the neighbourhood of Eshton, that the Herons were 

 established in Lord's Wood before they went to Flasby a 

 little over fifty years ago, so that now they have returned to 

 their original home. Mr. Nelson gives battles with the Rooks 

 as the chief reason for changing the sites. In my opinion the 

 cutting down of timber has been the main cause of the unrest 

 of these Herons for several years now. Herons are very in- 

 tolerant of tree-felling either in the heronry or near to it — 

 although the actual trees which contain their nests should be 

 scrupulously spared. The felling of timber has been going on 

 slowly but almost continuously on the Eshton estate for many 

 years now. I don't think the whole of the Eshton Heronry 

 has removed to Lord's Wood. The recently formed heronry 

 at Hubberholme, in extreme Upper Wharfedale {The Naktralist, 

 1915, p. 301), still continues and is gradually increasing in 

 numbers, and this season a pair of Herons successfully nested 

 in Bolton Woods ; also in Wharfedale. Almost beyond doubt 

 these would all be birds from the now deserted Eshton heronry. 

 — H. B. Booth, Ben Rhydding. 



Naturalist, 



