There’s been a thick fog in the valley every morning for a while. I’ve been out, trying to get some moody shots of Hank, et al. And I visited the Eastons – their pond is above the thickest of the fog.
This Saturday, August 22, I’ll be giving my slideshow, An Uncommon Look at the Common Loon at Beaver Meadow Chapel at 1672 Beaver Meadow Road Norwich, VT at 7:00 p.m. Free and everyone welcome. I’ll have calendars and a few note cards along with me.
A couple posts back, I had a few shots of a bull moose. With lots of bug bites. Walt Cottrell DVM wrote to introduce me to the moose fly. Turns out, there’s a fly that feeds on moose. And possibly only moose. Walt points out that seems to be a risky evolutionary strategy. Not only do the flies have to worry about continuing their existence, they have to worry about the moose too. If you eat only moose and the moose go away, you’ve got a problem. I did a quick AI search and neither Grok or ChatGPT could find any papers suggesting they eat anything but moose. Photographers can breathe a sigh of relief.
We’ve got a couple apple trees in the yard, with a good crop this year. A couple times, I’ve caught a small murder of crows swiping our apples. Each time, there’s been a crow in the tree and several grabbing apples from the ground. I’m trying to catch them again, I wonder if the one in the tree is tossing apples to the others.
On to the critters. In my last post, Hank Heron was traveling with a great egret. The egret seems to have moved on. And it turns out there are two Hanks along the river. Both look to be first-year birds.
There are also at least two green herons along the river as well. I think they’re both juveniles. They’ve been nearby, but very uncooperative about coming out into the open. For several days, this was the best I could do.
On the morning of August 11, I was stalking one of the green herons as he foraged along the bank. He was working under trees that cast deep shadows. He was moving towards a single spot of light. Fortunately, there was a fish there for him.
Breakfast was followed by a quick preening and a good shake.
The next morning found me heading downstream and finding Hank posing nicely in the fog. Getting the right conditions for a nice shot of a gray bird against a gray river in a gray fog is always tricky. And beautiful when everything works.
Hank let me get a few photos before moving a bit downstream and appearing to have a laugh at me.
Poking around the marsh, I found a few wood ducks out and about.
And was reminded that the odds of being killed by a spotted sandpiper may be low, but never zero…
There was a pair of spotted sandpipers foraging on a patch of water lilies.
There were lots of flying insects on the menu.
Heading back in, I flushed a small flock of wood ducks. Even in eclipse – that’s their non-breeding season plumage – they’re still beautiful. I took a day off due to the weather, but was back out on the 14th. Heron Burr, the green heron was foraging in deep fog at dawn. He grabbed a fish while I was watching. Why can’t birds do this sort of thing after the fog has lifted and the sun is shining?
The fishing was pretty good and Mr. Burr helped himself to a good breakfast.
About the only other critters stirring were the spotted sandpipers, gleaning insects from the lily pads. I gave up relatively early and headed home to tackle some chores.
Up early the next morning, I headed up to check on the Eastons. Mrs. Easton greeted me with a nice predawn stretch. Afterwards, she set about finding breakfast for the chicks. In previous years, Mrs. E was sort of a negligent parent. She’d give the chicks a couple meals, then head off on her own. This year, she has a new mate. And, she’s spending much more time with the chicks. Was the previous Mr. E a more diligent parent so she could leave things to him? Is the new Mr. E not sufficiently attentive? He’s certainly involved with the chicks but there’s a pretty even distribution of babysitting this year, a noticeable change.
Another stretch after feeding the chicks. Is it too much to hope that she is teaching the chicks how to pose nicely for photographers?
The chicks hatched the last week of June. They’ve shed most of their down and their adult feathers are growing in. They should start attempting to fly sometime in the next few days.
After a time without Mom coming up with food, and Dad off on his own, both chicks headed for my boat at a good clip. I was a disappointment in that I didn’t offer to feed them.
Although I was tempted…. look at that cute face.
The second chick cruising by the boat. And Mom getting in on the action, checking me out.
Mom headed off to preen and stretch.
Left on their own, the chicks got so darned hungry that they started to forage for themselves. They’re capable of taking care of themselves at this age. But taking care of themselves is required only when they can’t get a parent to provide. The chicks worked down the pond to find Dad, who was pressed into service to provide second breakfasts. After serving up several crayfish, Dad came up with a horned pout.
Which was promptly claimed by one of the chicks.
It took some work to get the fish down, but our chick was up to the challenge.
Followed by a mighty wing flap!
Sunday morning found me back on the river before dawn. I went downstream into the Connecticut, and around the marsh without finding any herons. Or anything else of interest. I was giving up and heading back upstream to the boat launch when I found Hank. He’d apparently slept in and looks like he hasn’t had his coffee yet. But he posed beautifully.
Hank rallied enough to go find some brunch. He was in a cooperative mood and posed nicely along the bank for several shots.
Is this my good side? Hank strikes another pose.
Breakfast is served! Hank makes a nice strike to grab a meal.
Shortly afterwards, Hank started jumping and flapping. He wasn’t going anywhere, just hopping and flapping a few feet at a time. I couldn’t figure out what he was up to. My first thought was there was a particularly pesky horse or deer fly after him. I watched for a time before having to get back home. I was back out yesterday morning. The fog was thick and there wasn’t a lot of light. Which was OK, there wasn’t a lot of wildlife to photograph. I passed one of the green herons on my way downstream. Hank made a brief appearance before heading off again. I headed home before the fog lifted.
I went back last evening. One of the green herons was foraging in nice light. Of course, he didn’t find a meal while the light lasted….
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Little Green herons are so special, always a treat to see in-person as well. :o) Great photos as always!
Sharon~
Very nice, as usual