Thursday Birdblogging
Feral Liberal went canoeing this past weekend, and found a great picture waiting to be taken. This Green Heron is fishing, and standing very still so he won't alert dinner that dinner is about to be ... dinner. Occasionally, they let out a squawk that sounds more like he's been stepped on than birdsong.
'The Green Heron is one of the few tool-using birds. It commonly drops bait onto the surface of the water and grabs the small fish that are attracted. It uses a variety of baits and lures, including crusts of bread, insects, earthworms, twigs, or feathers. ' from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Green_Heron_dtl.html
You can also hear what the green heron sounds like at that site.
Thanks, FeralL, glad you keep us in Great Lakes area birds. I haven't seen one of these since I left the East Coast, and btw, today is Chincoteague Wild Pony Swim day. The birds will all be scared off by the droves of tourists.
Labels: Birding
posted by Ruth at 10:26 AM
4 Comments:
The Green Heron's squawk is so distinctive. I always know when they're around. They're quite wary though, hard to approach.
Try to get closer and you'll more often get this view.
the giant birds in the yard this morning are sandhill cranes, or so I've been told. They make a very distinct googling noise that echoes quite a distance and rarely ever have been seen (by me) alone. Todays group was 3 (that I could see) and they were being quiet. I only noticed because I got up to do something and saw these giant birds just standing there outside the front windows. The backyard is the state parkland and it's a proverbial, albeit, natural zoological study of upper midwestern wildlife including a marshy pond with all the usual suspects stopping in for ... um ... fellowship. Since I noticed last week sometime that there was mention of bird day (yes sorta like catday but with less fur and more featherrs) I've been thinking about snapping some digitals (I'll have to get my brain-trust to show me how to use the camera again.
Thank you for letting me say a little something about the music and the mothers in Nashville. Er ... um ... Can I start over?
Let me know when you get some good bird pics, Bon vivanti, I can always use more shots. Nashville? great!
Every year we get to see a set of 3 or 4 baby green herons learn to fish.
Their parents chose a small batch of trees across from our sheltered pond to nest in 7 years ago. So far that pair has produced 25 fledged chicks.
We ca actually get quite close to them before they fly off into the trees. The parents will even sit in the trees around the pond while I mow with my Xmark ZTR (a VERY noisy machine).
We let a lot of natural vegetation grow up around the edges of the pond, about 5 to 10 feet of it in fact. This keeps it safe for the water birds and also keeps the geese from hanging around. They like manicured ponds not wild ones.
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