Ellesmere heron webcams installed on island

A colony of around 25 pair of herons nest on Moscow Island.

Ten webcams have been installed on an island to allow birdwatchers to watch a colony of herons.

A grant of £10,000 from the Big Lottery Fund paid for the cameras on Moscow Island in Ellesmere, Shropshire.

Images from the HD cameras, which are equipped with infra-red lights for night viewing, are being streamed live to the visitor centre.

A colony of around 25 pairs of herons nest on the artificial island.

The webcams have been installed high up in trees on Moscow Island

Waste from the construction of a road in 1812 was used to create the island, which stands in a natural eight hectare (116 acres) lake.

Edward Bevan, from Ellesmere Heronwatch, said visitors were treating the life of the birds in the colony as a "soap opera".

Moscow Island was constructed in 1812 using the waste from building a road