Little Blue Heron & Friends

Rog (rogs@erols.com)
Sat, 9 May 1998 20:57:50 -0400


First of all, thank you to Mary Ann Todd for the lead on the Little Blue
Heron.  I went over to Black Hill at around 5:00 this afternoon and walked
right up to it.  In fact it led to quite a "Black Hill Moment".  

Read on if you dare, or delete if you don't care.....

Once I got to the Spinning Wheel trail, I pretty much ignored a number of
birds; blowing right by Chickadees, Titmice, Gnatcatchers and Red-eyed
Vireos, and only slowing down to inspect a Black-throated Blue Warbler and
some goofy-lookin' thing that appeared to be a cross between a Purple Finch
and a Veery.  After all, I was on a mission!

Upon nearing the mouth of Little Seneca Creek, I clambered down the trail
that leads to the water's edge, looked out, and there it was sitting on a
stump in the water.  I'd never seen a Little Blue Heron before, so I
watched for a good long time while it lazily preened its feathers.  In the
background  I heard a Towhee urging me to "Drink [my] Tea", while a Wood
Thrush sang in harmony.  (Hey, it rhymes!)  And a Carolina Wren tried to
"modernize" the piece with cacophonous counterpoint a la Cage.
(Too much, ya think?)

Slowly a pair of Wood Ducks came into view, and climbed onto the log beside
the Heron.  "Not bad", I thought, "two Woodies and a Little Blue together."
 No sooner had that thought crossed my mind, than five Mallards swam into
view, and two Canada Geese crash-landed behind them.  So now I'm trying to
absorb all 10 birds (and several turtles) in the same astounding field of
vision; when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a GREAT Blue
Heron, moseying slowly behind the Little Blue as if to say, "You call that
a Heron?  I'll show you a REAL Heron."  I was practically slack-jawed with
amazement!  (OK, no practically about it, I was totally slack-jawed.)

Suddenly I heard a sharp whistle above me.  Tearing my eyes away from the
tableau, I watched a pair of Osprey arrive and begin circling above my
friends.  After a few laps around the scene, they soared on upstream. 
Crossing them in mid-air was a loudly shrieking female Wood Duck, who
splashed-down a little further on, and continued whistling shrilly.  This
spooked the Great Blue, but apparently intrigued the pair of Woodies,
because they started swimming over towards her.  When they got close, she
took off and flew about 50 yards away.  They followed, she ran, they
followed, she ran, and they repeated the scenario several times.

As the sun put in a brief appearance, my attention was again interrupted by
the return of one of the Osprey, this time with a good size fish in
hand...uh...talon.  She(?) settled onto a dead limb, flushing a Red-headed
Woodpecker who had been working there unnoticed.  The Osprey remained for
quite a while; frequently flappin' cause the fish was a-floppin'.  At one
point her mate flew near and she loudly whistled something like, "Honey,
I've got dinner on the table," but her mate just flew on by as if he didn't
hear.  (Insert male-bashing comment here.)

The Wood Ducks were making all kinds of ruckus, drawing my attention back
to their sick little love triangle, when suddenly a Crow swooped up and
knocked the Osprey right off its limb, making her drop the fish she had
gripped for over 15 minutes and chasing her out of sight.

As these two story lines wound down, I looked back for the Little Blue who
by now had moved to shallower waters and was replaced by a pair of Solitary
Sandpipers (thus disproving the name.)  A pair of Kingbirds chased each
other around the snags, while Tree and Barn Swallows competed with Chimney
Swifts and Goldfinches for the air rights.  A Kingfisher, a Flicker, a
Red-belly and a Baltimore Oriole also stopped by to check out the scene
before moving on.  Suddenly I glimpsed a flash of white and discovered that
the Red-headed Woodpecker had returned to its tree!

At this point ominous clouds began to roll in and a few drops began to
fall.  The Towhee was still nagging at me and the Wood Thrush continued its
serenade, but it was time to go home and I doubted Mother Nature could
improve on what she had just displayed..  I looked at my watch and it was
5:45.  I'd barely moved a muscle the entire time....

Happy Mother's Day!

Roger Stone
rogs@erols.com