It’s not uncommon for visitors to our ponds, lakes and rivers to see what look like tall, statuesque bird sculptures on shorelines. The great blue herons (Ardea herodias) – North America’s largest heron species – can stand for long periods without moving or only slightly tilting their heads as they exercise extreme patience in their quest for a morning, midday or evening meal.
If they have a chance for easy pickings, these herons will certainly take advantage of it, as I discovered when the koi and goldfish in my pond were disappearing. But in their natural habitat they will scan the water intently to find their prey.
If you have the time and inclination to watch them for a lengthier period of time, you will note how they hunch down and stretch up as they position themselves to get good views of the water around them.
They stare downwards and to the side, following the movements of fish, frogs and crayfish. When the wind blows, their plumed neck and tail feathers sway gently and beautifully in the breeze.
If nothing seems nearby, they will move with quiet and slow deliberation to another spot, often quite nearby. Unlike the snowy egrets, they don’t stir up the mud with their feet or flap their wings to create movement in the water.
When a fish does swim by, they burst into very fast motion, plunging their long beaks and whole heads down to grab what they have spotted.
They are not always successful, sometimes coming up empty beaked!
But their patience obviously does pay off, too.
Once caught, they need to work the fish or other prey around so that they can swallow it down smoothly. As they swallow their meal whole, this is important. (And they can eat a very large meal; there is a film on the Internet showing a heron swallowing a groundhog!!)
If you look carefully, you can see the meal slide down their long necks.
This fishing strategy works well for the great blues as they can continue to hunt even when injured. This bird had a very badly damaged wing and apparently couldn’t fly anymore but it could stalk slowly in the lake as it looked for food.
The bird below had had some kind of encounter – either with a man-made obstacle or some form of wildlife that left it with an injured wing and broken leg. Bald eagles are one of the few predators of adult herons and this great blue lives at Jordan Lake which has a group of such eagles in residence. Despite the handicap, the heron could fly from spot to spot and then stand in wait for meals to swim by.
If disturbed, these birds emit a very loud and harsh squawk or croaking sound and then often take off. They certainly wouldn’t win any singing contests with their definitively non-melodious calls.
They prefer to fish in solitude and don’t care for other birds invading their territory. This great blue and great egret wanted the same spot and the great blue made some efforts to chase off its white competitor. However, the egret refused to leave and eventually they shared the spot with some meters of space between them.
Watching the herons fish has not only given me an appreciation for their innate patience but has also enhanced my own patience as well as I stand and wait with them until it’s finally mealtime.
While ospreys are one of my favorite large birds, the gorgeous ruby-crowned kinglet (Regulus calendula) has won my heart among my tinier feathered friends. Today I’m sharing some portraits of kinglets made the past couple months (in my yard and at Bolin Creek greenway in Chapel Hill, Jordan Lake woods, Sandy Creek Park in Durham).
hes or 10-11 cm long), this kinglet is in almost constant motion, which makes getting good portraits a bit of a challenge. Despite this high level of activity, however, research has shown that the ruby-crowned kinglet only uses up to 10 kcal a day in energy. (Sometimes I think this holds true for me as well as the weight I want to lose just stays in place.)
Their main diet consists of insects, including spiders, ants, wasps, beetles and aphids. They will also occasionally eat seeds, fruit and sap.
Most of the time, the male’s beautiful little red crest (which gives the species its name) remains hidden unless it gets excited about something.
In my pursuit of portraits, I’ve found that just as I think I have the bird in focus, it has disappeared from my viewfinder and I need to look up and around to locate it again..Given its diminutive size, one wouldn’t expect that the female lays up to 12 – twelve! – eggs in its nest, which is elastic and can expand as the brood grows. The male and female stay together until the chicks fledge at about 2 months and they will defend the nest against intruders.
Sometimes, I hear the chittering call before I see the tiny wonder and only very rarely get to enjoy its longer 
What is very cool for me is that my visitor can become very friendly indeed. Last year, on two occasions, I was carrying a replenished suet feeder outside when the kinglet flew in to perch on it as I held the feeder in my hands – giving me a great close-up view. I look forward to seeing if the kinglet will favor me with an up-close-and-personal meeting again this coming winter!
One day when I was at a beautiful nature park in the neighboring city of Durham, I was – of course – looking for wildlife. For a while I watched a Northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) pecking along the path in a quest for insects. It wasn’t until I got to the pond, however, that a scene unfolded which kept me occupied for a while.
The resident great blue heron (Ardea herodias) had stationed him (or her) self at the end of a log on which several pond slider turtles (Trachemys scripta) were basking. He seemed to be staring in their direction, so I wondered if he was considering eating one. After seeing a video of a heron swallowing a groundhog whole, I knew that they can consume quite large meals. After a time, though, it seemed that the bird wasn’t interested in the turtles but in the fish swimming in front of them. After patiently waiting for a time, the heron stabbed and had success!
At home, I did an Internet search and found out that turtles shed their scutes from time to time and that was apparently what I was seeing. So I learned that turtles shed! Turtles’ shells are extensions of their rib cage and attached to their spine; terrestrial turtles don’t shed but aquatic turtles do shed scutes, which are made of keratin (like the material of horns or fingernails).
Last year, during a nature walk, I witnessed young Northern mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) displaying odd behavior as they strutted around on the ground. They would walk and hop a bit and then suddenly spread their wings wide and wider still, then close them and continue pecking on the ground.
This worked at least part of the time for this particular bird, as s/he got a few fish down. It required a lot of patience, however.
Sometimes the birds will face forward to dive down and then flip upwards at the last minute so they enter the water feet first. This bird did most of the dive with its feet down in the clutching position, ready to strike.
My beautiful world 