“Great blue heron is the color of gray mist reflecting in blue water. And like mist can fade into the backdrop…patient, solitary hunter, standing alone as long as it takes to snatch prey. – Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing.
Serenely splendid heron staring into river, the wind that blows your feathers is causing me to shiver: the setting sun is sinking, the ducks are flying home, I cannot help but wonder: do you ever feel alone? – Jez Green, Wonderland: A Forty-Day Poetic Pandemic Diary
Out on the dock there’s a Great Blue Heron. The heron is a beautiful bird. The bird book says they are 46 inches, but I believe they are much more. Their wingspan stretches to six feet. Though they are beautiful I find them a bit intimidating. Their bill is just short of six inches and looks like a dagger. On the good side they are skittish and loners. I doubt seriously if they’d attack a human. Even so I stay a good distance away. They are mostly fish eaters but also eat lizards, frogs, snakes, insects, small mammals and birds. This great blue should be wading along the edge of the lake and not standing on the dock. There’s no way he could reach any fish. He scrunches his neck down into his shoulders so that he appears to have no neck at all. They have an amazing neck structure that allows them to curve the neck into a “S” shape and settle into their back. The bird book says the scrunching indicates they may be taking off in flight or they have their eye on prey for dinner.
I was spending time at the window watching what the blue would do next knowing he could not possibly reach the water surface even with that long neck. Suddenly the bird did a 180 degree turn with his head. He kicked one leg out backwards and fanned his tail feathers. Then he did the other leg. I couldn’t decide if I was observing a bird ballerina or a contortionist.
With that he flew over to the far side. Then he disappeared either into the woods, or the irises that ring the lake. Blue herons live typically 15 years. Eagles are their biggest predators. More than half of the great blues die before they are a year old from other predators. Great blues are permanent residence here in the South. They have methods of tolerating heat. They droop their wings and open their beaks. They “flutter” their throat muscles to increase air flow, something like a human would pant. I don’t know if you can guess the age of a Great blue by his coloration or not. I decided my visiting Great blue was probably an elder male. I may have made that up but he just seemed so. Mostly he watched the water but didn’t try hard to catch anything. He seemed to enjoy just being there. After standing on his legs awhile he got tired and stretched his legs. The bird’s feathers were a downy soft gray and a little ruffled that made him look older than he possibly was. I hope he enjoyed his stay as much as I enjoy watching him. Maybe one day he’ll come back again and catch a fish or two.
Shannon Bardwell is a writer living quietly in the Prairie. Email reaches her at [email protected].
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