A most incredible bird!

Various Places 2008 – 2019

Blogger’s Note: I love great blue herons. Herons are easy to spot and easy to photograph. By now I have enough pictures for three blog posts. First some portraits, second fishing, and finally with chicks. I hope you enjoy all three as much as I have enjoyed taking the pictures and learning.

Portraits.

A solitary heron flies past – appearing briefly out of the mist. Disappearing. The brief moment fills me with memories. I know herons breed and raise their young in colonies, but I see them alone. From my kayak I’ve watched them fish, fly off, disappear and appear alone. So this one image calls up my strongest idea of a heron. Let’s start here.

Here is my ideal. Spring. The orange beak and the long plumage suggest to me a male in the breeding season. Perhaps a little bigger than a female, there is really no way to say for certain this is a male – I just think so.

This I feel is a hungry heron! The angle of the head and beak, the searching, piercing stare. If this heron feels safe, this heron will be in the water hunting soon.

While my image of a heron is perfection – their lives are not easy. Look at the wings and we can think of the hardship this bird has endured. It gives me a sense – which we’ll see again later – that herons are almost human.

Still, their beauty endures.

Take a moment to click on the first heron and scroll through the portraits of a heron’s life. Notice that they can hide, they can blend in. They are wary and ready to fly when uneasy, and they are continually watching, studying the water around them.

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I paddle as quietly as possible, then glide. Trying not to disturb – but then having approached too close – watching this almost prehistoric bird as it flies off. Again, click on the first image then scroll through the set to enjoy the elegance of it’s flight.

(I do feel that my intrusion is minimal. It won’t fly far, it won’t expend a lot of energy, and the abundance around will sustain it. So I have hope that my intrusion will enthrall others and we can all help sustain the environment it needs.)

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But a heron’s life is not just solitary. Great blue herons become pairs! Great Blue Herons are usually monogamous during any one season, but they may choose a different mate the next year. The male may build a nest and then begin the courtship. Again – doesn’t this demonstrate there is a very short distance between instinct and human emotion.

When we look at these portraits – two herons, together. We see a unity, even a caring.

Sometimes I wish humans had the same instincts!

Finally I spotted a distant heron nest way up in the trees. Now, looking carefully, I see a second heron beak. Another bird behind and slightly below. A nesting couple! A nice way to end this post.