Heron stands with baited hook
A single step and darkness falls.
A mature Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) has haunted the shores of Dalhousie Lake for many seasons, and I always look for her return in April. These great birds live for as long as seventeen years, and there is a strong possibility that this magnificent heron is the same one I have been observing along the shoreline for so many years.
She (or perhaps he) landed majestically in the shallows with hardly a ripple and nary a sound last weekend — there she stood in quiet grandeur and untroubled patience until after the sun had gone down in flames over the the west end of the lake, and I could no longer see her clearly. Curled up in the lee of an overturned rowboat on that damp evening, I was perfectly content and out of the cold north wind — it is an incandescent experience of the first order to share nightfall with a Great Blue Heron, and I cherish the thought of a heron rookery in the trees nearby, or is that a heronry?
One of my dreams for the coming summer is to take a photo of the Great Blue Heron who visits my beaver pond at sunrise.
4 comments:
This photo just drew an "oooooh" from me. Couldn't help it. It's like sinking into that blue with the heron. Wonderful.
You are so blessed to have a Heron neighbor. I hope you get that sunrise Heron photo you dream of.
When the Heron showed up for me in the Greenwood... things shifted in astounding ways... I am delighted that she feels so at home with you... you are a truly wild, crone, elder, woman!
Love,
Julie
The Great Blues are some of my favorite birds... They regularly fly high overhead but --- all my camera catches are small gray dots against the sky.
This photo calls to me... Your words let me --- for a moment - share with you the beauty of this lovely experience
Oh, thank you for sharing.
I do hope you get the photo of the Great Blue Heron at sunrise!
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