A black-crowned night heron — a scarce visitor to the UK, more commonly found across Africa, Asia, the Americas, and mainland Europe — has been filmed on three consecutive days at the Holnicote Estate in Somerset (a rural county in south-west England), where conservationists have been restoring the River Aller by allowing it to return to its natural course. The rewilding project, inspired by similar schemes in Oregon, USA, has freed the river from centuries of channelling, creating pools, streams, and boggy areas that now support otters, water voles, beavers, and a growing variety of bird species including white-tailed eagles, white storks, and cranes. Project managers say the lush, wet landscape stands out amid an increasingly parched southern England, drawing rare wildlife to what has become a vital refuge as the UK works to recover the roughly 90% of wetlands lost over the past 500 years.