A SUNDAY EVENING'S BOUNTY

It had rained throughout the afternoon, but the skies had cleared so Gracie and I set out to see what critters might be enjoying the cooler, less humid temperatures.

 As I rounded a bend to the first farmland pond, I immediately saw a striking Great Blue Heron standing at water’s edge.  It was the first one I’d seen this summer.

I was creeping along at a snail’s pace, but the GBH turned in my direction and spotted me.  It was not happy with my presence and scurried off to the other end of the pond, heavily laden with cattails and other vegetation.  I moved on.

I turned the next corner and saw three cranes herky-jerkying their way through a field of cut hay.  Two parents were book-ending the juvenile in the center.  Since they were so close to the farm where I’d seen two cranes pair-bonding in the spring, I wondered if this was the same family.

The sun was sinking lower in the sky, and it turned this field of corn and cut hay to a glorious gold.

Driving on, I spied these twin fawns grazing at the edge of another cornfield.  Ever vigilant, one saw me right away, and the others had perked its ears in alert.  I wondered where their mother was.

I turned around and was heading back to catch the other side of the road when I immediately flushed four cranes from the edge of yet another cornfield.  They were flying into the sun, so I didn’t get more than silhouettes of them.  Perhaps these four were the family with two juveniles that I’d seen last week.

With the sunset now 45-minutes earlier, I was losing light fast but decided to swing past the pond one last time to see if the Great Blue had come out of hiding, and it had.  Such a lovely bird!  It didn’t seem as skittish as before, maybe because the light was lower and it couldn’t see me as well.

The GBH busied itself with fishing in the marsh.  I loved that I got its reflection in the water.  It paid no attention to me as I clicked away, taking 450 pictures in all.  Gracie was watching intently out the window too, not making a sound.

I detected movement to my left and saw another bird fly into the reeds.  I didn’t know what it was from the tail end.

When it turned towards me, I still couldn’t identify it.  At home, I scoured my bird apps and thought it might be a juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron.  But they are quite rare in this area, so I doubted my tentative identification.  I checked with an Audubon Club friend, and he confirmed the bird ID with a “WOW!”

The juvenile heron wasn’t doing much so I returned to the GBH, who had continued to fish.  It opened its mouth, but I couldn’t tell what it had gotten. 

As the Great Blue crouched low and resumed its wading deeper into the marshy growth, I couldn’t help but be amazed at what I’d seen this Sunday evening.