A Heron in My Tree

I have always thought Herons and other large water birds like Egrets, look a bit out of place in a tree. They are just huge compared to the other perching birds! Anyway, the other night when I was trying (once again) to catch a snapshot of a Blue Jay "stealing" a peanut from the feeder by my back porch, I noticed our one of our resident Great Blue Herons flying low across the lake. They are usually pretty reclusive and keep to the island at one end of the lake. We have seen them a lot more this year - even wading just off the shore behind our house. Then I saw it. There was a large gray blob in a tree at the edge of the woods! It was the back of a Great Blue Heron perching in one of our trees! They are so funny looking from that angle. They sort of remind me of Snoopy sitting on the edge of his dog house assuming his "vulture" pose!

Ours must not vocalize very much. I listened to the vocals on the What Bird site - never heard them before. What I do hear now when the window is open at night is the little peeper frogs. They have arrived now with the warmer weather. I am sure the Herons must love the frogs here. We have always had a large, healthy population of frogs here. We also have a slew of crayfish, which my Peterson Field Guide says is also part of their diet.

Speaking of sounds in the night - I heard the Barred owl again this morning around 5:40. Wanna know why I was awake at 5:40 this morning? We had a 5.2 magnitude earthquake here! Yes, right here in Indiana! I actually bought earthquake insurance many years ago because we live well within range of the New Madrid fault system. This one came from a nearby adjacent fault to the New Madrid. Anyway, I lay there after jumping out of bed from that jolting experience and listened to the owl for awhile. It's nice to know they like to hang around our place. I love knowing we provide a home to so much wildlife. Our place is a refuge for us from the everyday rush of life, and it provides refuge to wildlife from the rapid pace of development.

Well - tomorrow I'll put more whole peanuts in the feeder and try to get a shot of the sneaky Blue Jays and do a post on them. Oh, and for any who have checked out the Falcon Blog link here, they are expecting eggs to start hatching next week, so stay tuned!