Tag Archives: wetlands

Small, feisty and fascinating — my favorite herons!

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Well, time has passed again quite quickly since my last blog (at least for me), but I hope you find this posting worth the wait! I’d like to introduce you to my favorite herons.

There are 16 heron species in the USA, and many are fairly large birds. But my favorite is the smallest one — the green heron (Butorides virescens)!

They are sometimes considered rather “secretive” birds, avoiding being out in the open or in full sight. When they sit and stalk near vegetation, they can indeed be difficult to spot.

Even when flying, they can blend in well with background bushes and trees.

This year I was fortunate enough to see them out and about fairly often. They accommodated birders by staying for a while at four different ponds and a small lake.

What used to be a decent pond behind a shopping center was drained a couple years back and became a barren and often trashy area. The beavers who helped keep it water-filled were chased away. But when our area had copious rains in late summer this year, the pond filled partly and sometimes fully. A pair of green herons took up residence for several weeks alongside mallards, a lone hooded merganser, a young ibis, some egrets and little blue herons.

     

Green herons are known by various common names, some of which I find rather weird:

  • Fly-up-the-creek (likely inspired by their swift flight when startled or disturbed)
  • Poke (perhaps referring to how they forage)
  • Shitepoke (referring to their projected fecal matter; see left!)
  • Chalkline
  • Indian Hen and
  • Chucklehead.

In my experience, great blue herons tend to ignore people for the most part, but the greens always seem very aware of our presence and sometimes curious about why we’re watching. So, I might be inclined to give them a nickname like Puzzlers, befitting their sometimes-intent perusal of watchers.

 

 

When not stalking prey, these herons often perch or stand with their long neck pulled in and they look like they’re hunching their shoulders. When you see their neck extended, though, you get a good idea of how tall they can be!

 

 

Other herons are not quite as colorful as the greens. These small herons change their appearance much more, displaying feathers of white, cream, chestnut, green, brown, gray and black colors. This is set off against a pair of yellow or orange legs, making for quite an attractive bird.

     

     

The green herons are among the tool-users of the animal world. They fetch different items to serve as bait to lure fish to the water’s surface, including insects, bread, leaves or feathers. They mostly look for prey while wading along waterways or stalking in shallow areas. Occasionally, they also go after prey in deeper water, evening diving in and needing to swim back to land.

Their diet can be varied, including animals such as frogs, tadpoles, lizards, crayfish, snakes, dragonflies, grasshoppers and other insects, and sometimes small rodents.

This summer I saw one green heron catch a very large frog that was at least as long as its beak, if not longer. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a clear photo as my camera has been malfunctioning. ☹

After watching them often, it’s still not entirely clear to me why they sometimes raise their crests. Perhaps it’s a way of warning those around them that they are on the alert and not willing to share space. I do think it gives them an attractive look, although they can be stunning when simply resting on a branch while they survey the surrounding area.

At the end of August, I thought the greens had begun moving on to their winter abodes as I wasn’t spotting them. But then a few days ago, I caught one chilling out at a vineyard pond with no other wading birds in sight.

               

My late summer sighting was perched on branches at the pond’s edge, standing on one leg. Since a large snapping turtle was floating right behind him/her, I hoped that the other leg was simply tucked up under its feathers — and luckily, that was correct.

A threat to these entertaining birds is the alteration and loss of wetlands, which are proceeding quickly. Green herons are not (yet) among the birds whose survival is threatened as a species and individuals can live as long as 9 years. Nevertheless, this year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported that wetland loss rates have increased by 50% since 2009 and North Carolina, where I live, was particularly affected.

This continuing decline can only be stopped with more action to preserve existing wetlands, as well as measures to deal with the effects of climate change. I very much hope that I’ll be able to continue seeing the green herons and other wetlands wildlife for a long time to come.

Craving crawdads in Carolina – a buffet for night herons

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Many people in the USA, especially but not only in the South, grow up knowing what crawdads (Cambarus bartoni) are. This was not the case for me. My immigrant family pretty much stuck to the dietary customs of their own and their friends’ home countries (The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany). Like pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes and okra, crawdads were not on those menus and so it was only recently that I actually learned that these crustaceans are the same thing as crayfish, of which I had heard as a child.

This year was my time to learn more about these members of the arthropod family who are related to lobsters – it turned out they were thriving in a pond created through a man-made wetlands installed between a shopping mall and several apartment complexes. I learned about their presence when local birders alerted one another that the crawdads were attracting a family of yellow-crowned night herons (Nyctanassa violacea).

Hoping to spot the herons, I also visited the wetlands and first noted the crayfish remains scattered around near the pond. Shortly thereafter, I came across one crossing a path in another local nature park (photos above and below). It was interesting to see how the crawdad first stayed stock still as I neared and then stood tall on its legs as its tail propelled it backwards while it made a dash for the nearby pond.

The crawdad females lay hundreds of eggs; scientists do not yet know how long they incubate before birth but estimate it takes somewhat longer than a month before they hatch. In North Carolina, there are almost 50 species of these animals and several species are found only in this state.

The crayfish at the wetlands must have had a successful year because the place became a real buffet for various birds. Both adult and young night herons stayed near this pond for quite a long time before leaving to migrate to more southerly climes for the winter.

The adult herons were attractive with their boldly patterned heads.

 

 

   

They kept up their looks through regular preening.

 

 

Sometimes, they emerged from the pond weeds to perch on a snag while peering into the water on the lookout for a meal.

 

It was interesting to learn that while the adults have yellow legs most of the year, their legs can turn red or pink during breeding season.

 

 

In my experience, the younger herons were a bit less shy and didn’t fly off so quickly when I neared.

 

One in particular decided to take the sun in mid-August, adopting a pose that I more often see taken by great blue herons and which I’ve nicknamed the “flasher stance.”

     

The young birds, like their parents, stalked the pond vegetation on the lookout for crawdad snacks.

They also showed the herons’ taste for other food such as snails, earthworms and insects.

 

The night herons, for which most birders visited the wetlands, weren’t the only birds at the buffet, however. Red-shouldered hawks (Buteo lineatus) also showed a fondness for the crustaceans.

 

 

 

The herons weren’t always alert to their presence. One adult, for example, decide to fly to a low perch when chased away from a tall snag by a hawk. S/he settled in for a bit of preening but was then rudely chased off by the same hawk. (That hawk was later harassed by a group of crows, who chased it away in turn.)

Other herons who were interested in outdoor crayfish dining during the humans’ Covid epidemic, included the great blue herons (Ardea herodias).

 

 

Green herons (Butorides virescens) visited the pond regularly as well, eating small fish in addition to the other wetland delicacies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Belted kingfishers (Megaceryle alcyon) were busy flying to and fro over the length of the pond, but I didn’t see them carry off any crayfish so they must have been focused on fish.

 

A great egret (Ardea alba) was a regular visitor, too, stalking different areas of the pond.

The adult night herons obviously thought it was interesting to watch the egret’s foraging technique.

Other regular visitors to the wetlands included a flock of Canada geese, American and fish crows, Northern mockingbirds and wandering glider dragonflies (Pantala flavescens).

 

There were so many animals feeding on the crawdads this summer that the female crayfish must have had a lot of success with their offspring reaching maturity. The last reported sighting of the yellow-crowned night herons at the wetland was 24 October, but I’m guessing that they will be leaving soon and the pond will not be so busy this autumn. The crayfish population had to have been reduced mightily over the summer season, so it will be interesting to see whether it rebounds and attracts crowds of birds — and birders — next year!