Feeding The Ducks

Crackers and James had remembered to bring their cameras with them so they took lots of pictures of everything. There were ducks and drakes and coots, and lots of other pretty ducks. When they got home they were going to look up all the different birds in their bird books so they could find out the names of every one.

Because they sat so still on one of the benches, they were rewarded with the sight of a heron - a quite shy, reclusive (that means it likes to be on its own a lot) bird that stands like a statue in the shallows waiting for a fish for its dinner.

The heron is an easily recognised, grey-backed bird, with long legs, a long, white neck, bright yellow bill and a black eye-stripe that continues as long, drooping feathers down the neck. Unusually, it stands on just one of its legs at a time! Scary said that was because it only got half as tired that way!