| from the October 30, 2011 Newsletter issued from Mayan Beach Garden Inn 20 kms
north of Mahahual, Quintana Roo, México HERON POSE Great Blue Herons are widely distributed and so common that usually I don't give them a second look. However, this week one landed near me and struck such a classic pose that I just had to photograph him. That's him above. from the August 23, 2009 Newsletter, issued from the
Siskiyou Mountains west of Grants Pass, Oregon: Up at the pond this week a juvenile Great Blue Heron, ARDEA HERODIAS, has been letting me get closer than he should. You can see him about to jab at something here. I've mentioned how these days most of the pond is clogged with Jointed Rush, the stuff in the above picture emerging from the water like grass. Not long ago fish in the pond swam around in conspicuous schools near the water's surface but since the heron's arrival the fish have been hiding in that rush. Well, also this week a Belted Kingfisher has been taking his toll, so really those fish are cowering in any dark, deep place they can find, hardly ever showing themselves. You just see big bullfrog tadpoles darting to the surface, gulping mouthfuls of air, and skedaddling back onto the mud floor. I'll bet the heron is eating more tadpoles than fish. Watching the heron puts me in a certain mood. He's always there, usually elegantly posed with a fish-staring tension similar to how he is in the photo. He doesn't move much but his moves are meaningful, and beautiful to behold, redolent of Chinese-landscape-watercolors, end-of-summer, slightly sad, Augusty feelings. On the Great Blue Heron's wonderful "Birds by Bent" page at http://www.birdsbybent.com/ch1-10/gbh.htm the old-timey naturalist talk there says of the juvenile's plumage that "the upper parts, back, and wing coverts are plain gray, 'deep mouse gray' to 'deep Quaker drab,' without any signs of plumes anywhere." Wouldn't it be neat to live in a time when people could speak of "deep Quaker drab" with the expectation that others would understand? from the September 11, 2011 Newsletter issued from Mayan Beach Garden Inn 20 kms
north of Mahahual, Quintana Roo, México |
| Howell reports Great Blues as present in the Yucatán from September through April, plus there's a disjunct breeding colony in Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve just to our north. |
This
is wander time for a lot of birds. Even among permanent residents you're apt to see
species suddenly appear where they haven't been all summer. Often their plumages are
different from either their summer or their winter ones -- the ones illustrated in field
guides. Lots of these wanderers are young birds so sometimes you also see them doing
things a well adjusted adult wouldn't -- such as fly onto a limb and lose his balance, or
let a housecat get too close.