They're Back

You may remember our posts from last year about coming to the realization that we had a colony of great blue herons nesting nearby - Dinosaurs Across the Cove, May 31, 2018 and Seeing Through a Lens, June 28, 2018 - where we discovered that the racket we were hearing across the cover was not the result of a single nest of herons.

Instead, over the course of a week's observation from a kayak drifting along the edge of the water, we found a dozen active nests. This young heron was practicing the new-to-her art of fishing just below her nest one of those mornings and allowed me to drift close enough to capture this image.

Well, they are back in full force. The colony continues to thrive. Outings in May and June this year spotted nine active nests along the shoreline with more obvious activity just out-of-site behind the tree line. Sometimes you can hear them when you cannot see them.

In my first outing this year, I was greeted by a young heron in the same location as the photo above and, not 30 feet away, a cormorant just like the one below sitting on this same log. It was a perfect welcome back moment. (See The Launch, July 12, 2918). Both sat quietly as my kayak drifted closer. A repeat from last year when I found both spots similarly occupied on the same morning.

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It was a "deja vu all over again" moment as Yogi Berra would have said. Except this year there was a difference. As I looked toward the shore behind the heron, an adult heron walked out to join it's charge. A fishing lesson was in process.

Here is wishing you a great 4th of July week. Enjoy a heron audio clip from Audubon.org. Worth a short listen. My imagination tells me these calls include much of what we might have heard during the Cretaceous Period if we could get close to the heron's ancestors - other colony sounds.

Let me know if you do not think they sound somewhat other worldly.

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