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There are many areas along the roads on Goose Island where it is safe to pull off to fish or view wildlife. In some spots, though, it is advisable to turn on the caution blinkers. Some of the birds will flee when a car slows or parks, but others are accustomed to traffic and are more likely to tolerate your presence.
Try to blend in and don’t get out of the car for a closer look. Even the most patient heron will usually draw the line when a car door opens and people get out.
If you are lucky enough to succeed in getting a good view of a great blue heron along the road, you might then have to use a lot of patience yourself. Once in awhile, if the heron is close to prey already, you might get lucky and see a dramatic lunge and capture fairly soon. At other times, you might have to wait a good half hour or more before the heron does anything interesting.
But even if you don’t get to see a capture, the heron might still give a show worth watching. Usually, after a period of apparent idleness, a heron will do some cosmetic work. Especially if it has just flown in or has gotten wet, it might fluff its feathers and preen for some time.
If you have a camera, this is a good time for pictures since the birds can assume some incredible poses. They might even seem a bit like acrobats as they twist their long necks to get at nearly every inch of their lanky frames. They will often flex their wings at this time and extend their beautiful plumes.
It might seem mundane, but I never cease to get a kick out of seeing a heron scratching its head and neck, which by the way, they seem to do rather often. The long clawed toes make perfect scratchers as the bird rakes the feathers and shuts its eyes in apparent relief.
You might also notice the bird constantly flicking its head or probing its feathers to remove bothersome deer flies, mosquitoes and other pests. We are not alone in that department.
It might take awhile, but even a statue-still heron will eventually do something interesting. In fact, watching them is a good way to learn the true pace of nature, as opposed to the cut-and-paste action-filled scenarios presented on TV, and to develop your own capacity for patience.
But don’t get too lulled by the leisurely pace — something that you have waited for over an hour to see might take place in less than a second while you are distracted by something else. It can be very frustrating — and there are no instant replays. Enjoy!
Hard to see herons
While following a cooperative great blue heron as it waded along a slough, I found a real bonus — a smaller green heron poised to strike at a fish. It was so focused on its prey that it did not seem to notice me and flee as they usually do when a car approaches. I watched in awe with my camera ready as it stood with its neck stretched in readiness. After about three minutes, it decided the moment was right and then struck.
The sharp beak shot into the water like an arrow launched from a bow and struck a bull’s-eye. As soon as it lifted the pumpkinseed sunfish from the water, though, it was already turning and spreading its wings to fly away. In only a few seconds, that sunfish had been impaled, pulled from the water and was being flown away to be swallowed by the little chicken-sized heron.
A few days later, I saw a different green heron near the same place. This one was also ready to strike, so once again it paid little attention to me as I pulled up. I waited only a few minutes before the heron flew a couple feet and splashed down on a small fish. It immediately turned and flew back to a perch to swallow its catch. It was hard to tell, but it might have been a mud minnow this time, which I have seen herons and egrets catch in that little bay before.
The heron stayed on the perch for only a minute or so before dashing into the vegetation along the shore, which is where green herons like to stay hidden a good deal of the time. I’m not sure how they all behave in other parts of their range, but I feel very lucky to get a relatively close look at a green heron around here. They seem much more shy than their bigger cousins, the great blues.
Green herons also are much shorter and less lanky than the great blues. They look not much bigger than a good-sized chicken until they stretch their long necks. Unlike the great blue heron, though, the green heron usually holds the head and neck closer to the body giving it a rather un-heronlike appearance.
And, if you do get a good look at one or see a color picture, I’m sure you’ll agree with me that green herons don’t look very green with their reddish necks and blue-gray body feathers.
Whaditiz
They were the blossoming stage of edible hopniss or Indian potato we learned about last spring.
Contact Jim Solberg at (608) 782-2560 or nitefrogger@charter.net.
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