Herons and Cranes

Overview

Herons and cranes are the great wading birds of the wet country. Herons stand alone at the water's edge all year and fish; cranes come in flocks and dance on the flood meadows in spring. Reedfolk pilots read both with the reed beds, as part of the long watching that tells them where the water stands and where it will go.

Appearance

A heron stands as tall as a Human's waist on long yellow legs: a slender grey bird with a white neck streaked black, a black plume behind the eye, and a long dagger of a yellow bill. It flies slowly on broad, bowed grey wings with its neck folded back and its legs trailing, and croaks a harsh, single fraank. A heronry, high in the willows, stinks of fish.

A crane is taller still, nearly as tall as a Human, grey all over with a black and white head, a red patch on the crown, and a bustle of drooping feathers over the tail. It flies with its neck stretched straight out, and a flock calls in loud, rolling, trumpeting cries that carry for miles.

Habitat and Range

Herons live along every slow water: the fens and reed beds of the Reedmere in the Confluence Basins, the backwaters and oxbows of the Lower Serath, and the side channels of the Greyford Reach. Cranes winter and pass through the wet meadows of the Basins and the Serath, and some pairs nest in the remotest fens.

Behaviour and Temperament

A heron stands motionless in the shallows and strikes at fish, frogs, eels, and young water birds, or stalks slowly through the meadow for voles. It nests in colonies in tall trees. Cranes walk the meadows in flocks eating roots, seed, grain, and small creatures, and in spring the pairs dance: bowing, leaping, flinging up grass, and calling together. Both are wary and take flight at a long distance.

Life Cycle

Herons nest early, in late winter, and raise three or four young in a great untidy platform of sticks. Cranes pair for life and raise one or two young a year. Both may live twenty years.

Uses and Dangers

Herons are a lord's quarry for falcons, and their plumes trim caps. Cranes are hunted for the table where lords allow it. Herons take fish from the weirs and ponds, which fishers resent. Neither does harm to people.

Lore and Belief

Reedfolk pilots watch where herons stand: a heron fishes where the water is shallow and steady, so a heron standing where the channel was last year shows the channel has moved. When the cranes dance on a flood meadow, Reedfolk say the rise is near, and households move what they must above the line. Basin Humans hold that a heron flying over a house means a death, and that cranes carry the souls of the drowned downriver.

Where It Appears

• Overview: Animals