After a stormy night, it was a welcome surprise to look out the window and see the silhouette of a Great Blue Heron against a clear twilight sky! I watched the heron as it sat quietly for a long time at the top of a dead tree’s trunk, the lovely curvature of its long neck and smooth body evoking thoughts of Asian art. Finally the bird pulled back, lunged forward, and sprang into flight. A fine way to start the day and a new month.
Green Heron (Butorides virescens) running across a tree branch arch.
I decided to take some time to see if I could capture a better portrait of the skittish Green Heron I watched the other day. So I revisited Medina County’s Alderfer-Oenslager Wildlife Sanctuary. Today I arrived armed with my wonderful 400mm telephoto lens and began stalking heron. I looked along the boardwalk, no heron. I checked the banks of the wetland and in the trees… nope. Red-winged Blackbirds aplenty but no heron. I looked around the smaller pond above the wetlands and still found no little heron. Oddly, this day very few dragonflies were visible either. Disappointed and about to give up hope, I spotted “Little Green” on the banks of a very small and shallow pool near the large wetlands. The heron was scuttling along the edge of the water, apparently looking for prey from upon the muddy banks. He hiked up and across a fallen tree branch that formed an arch, then back to the mud. I managed to squeeze off a few shots but then my quarry took off. No, I hadn’t spooked it… another Green Heron was flying over and mine gave chase. I stuck around for quite a while after that but the birds did not return. So I took off, myself.
A big bird can carry a big stick. Herons don't, however, talk softly.
I had the day off to attend to some personal business. Thing is, it wasn’t all-day business and with the morning dawning clear and bright, I headed back to the heron rookery we enjoyed a bit more than a week ago. The community nesting site is alongside Bath Road south of Peninsula, Ohio.
A heron slows and flares up to gently land on the branches of a tree.
The Great Blue Herons were still at their nest building with big birds swooping down from the trees, collecting twigs, branches, and other materials, then lofting to the treetops.
Great wings spread the heron lands, its mate barely visible in the nest.
Alighting in the thin branches and on their nests, the collected twig is delivered to the waiting mate and appropriately placed to become part of the nest.
The arriving heron delivers the twigs and strokes his mate along her side.
Lunging from the nest, the collector begins another cycle of careful selection and delivery of construction material. Soon chicks will appear in the nests and then, for mom and dad heron, the work really begins!
Off again, the Great Blue takes flight seeking more nesting material.
It was a fine morning of bird photography and I filled two memory cards with images. Once back, I deleted a few pictures but most were worth keeping and some were quite good; I’m happy to have shared a few here.
During my commute drive to work this morning I saw my first Great Blue Heron of the year. It was standing in the shallows of Baldwin Lake in Berea. Spring must be close at hand! I thought it worth mentioning.
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