Those who rose early on Saturday and found their way to the west pier will have observed what this gazette has been following since Thursday morning: the continued presence of a heron, silent and largely unmoving, a short distance from the edge of the water, apparently waiting. The heron has been observed in the same position at dawn, at midday, and at dusk on three consecutive days, and as of Saturday afternoon had altered its posture only twice, each time by a degree so slight that witnesses disagreed about whether the movement had in fact occurred.
A chronological account, compiled from the best available sightings, stands as follows. On Thursday morning the heron was first noted by a passing drake, who mentioned it in conversation with the Clerk without attaching particular importance to the observation. On Thursday evening a second sighting, by a coot known to this paper for the reliability of its observations in ordinary matters, caused the Clerk to raise the question at the close of business. On Friday the heron was observed continuously, with reports logged from at least four separate parties. By Saturday the heron had become a fixture, as, indeed, had the small crowd of watchers at a respectful distance.
Our correspondent has reviewed the visitor logs kept at the reed-bed office. The heron in question has not filed. Repeated invitations to present credentials at the office have gone unanswered, though the Clerk notes — with professional restraint — that herons are not, strictly, required to respond, and would not, in the Clerk’s experience, do so in any case. “One may invite a heron,” the Clerk observed, “but one may not expect.”
Local reaction has been cautious. A drake observed passing the pier on Friday described the heron’s bearing as “thoughtful,” and, pressed for elaboration, declined to provide any. A second drake, approached separately, described it as “unusually thoughtful,” which this paper takes to be an escalation of the first account, though possibly not in the intended direction. The Warden of the Sluice, who spent some minutes observing the heron from a prudent distance late on Friday, offered the view that “the heron is, at a minimum, not un-thoughtful,” a statement we reproduce with the Warden’s permission and without further interpretation.
A cluster of goslings, questioned by our correspondent at some length, reported that the heron had not, so far as they could tell, moved at all; upon being asked a follow-up, they admitted they had been watching for “only a little while” and could not vouch for the period between honks. The eldest of the goslings added that she found the heron, in her private opinion, “not frightening, but also not not frightening,” which her mother has since asked us to strike from the record. We have declined.
This is not the first instance of an unscheduled heron at the western margin of the pond. Older readers will recall the Matter of the Quiet Visitor of three winters past, in which a heron of similar disposition remained at the upper bend for the better part of four days and then, one dawn, was not there. The Subcommittee of the day concluded no report, being unsure what a report on such a matter would contain, and the incident passed into the informal archive of things that had happened without, strictly, happening. This gazette is not presently willing to conclude that the current case will resolve itself in the same way. It is willing to concede that it might.
A formal protest has not been lodged, as the grounds for one are uncertain. The Subcommittee will convene after the tides to discuss whether the continued presence of a heron on a west pier, absent paperwork, represents a matter for this gazette or simply the ordinary course of Saturday. Drake Halford, still in dispute with the census (see Wednesday’s bulletin), has asked to attach a separate note to the Subcommittee’s agenda, suggesting — with some feeling — that the heron be enrolled, provisionally, as one of the three persons presently occupying his position on the rolls, “until such time as the matter is otherwise resolved.” The Clerk has taken the request under advisement.
The pier, meanwhile, is unusually quiet. The heron remains. The matter remains open.