A couple of weeks ago at Lema Ranch I came upon a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) fishing in Leah’s Pond.
As is usual for this species, this heron was standing still and waiting for its prey most of the time and slowly walking through the shallow water otherwise, looking for anything that would fit down its throat.
Lema Ranch has many walkers and joggers that traverse the grounds and some of the local birds are fairly tolerant of visitors.
One thing that I really like about digiscoping is that it allows me to get close-up views of birds without disrupting their natural behavior.
Great Blue Herons are a very adaptive species, feeding on a wide array of animals including fish, insects, mammals, amphibians, birds and crustaceans1. Just get a load of that beak!
I shot a video of this bird fishing Leah’s pond. As you can see, most of its time was spent motionless, waiting for prey to show itself. He or she did slowly wade through the water also but caught the one fish I saw it catch at the end of the video by standing in wait. Enjoy!
To see more great birds, check out The Bird D’pot and Wild Bird Wednesday!
References: 1Birds of North America Online
Larry Jordan
Larry Jordan is an avid birder and amateur photographer living on the Pacific Flyway near the Central Valley of Northern California. He is a board member of his local Audubon Society and is a bird and wildlife conservationist. Larry contributes to several wildlife conservation organizations and is a BirdLife International "Species Champion." He is also Habitat Manager for the Burrowing Owl Conservation Network, an organization dedicated to the protection and restoration of the Western Burrowing Owl population in the United States. Larry has been blogging about birds since September of 2007 at TheBirdersReport.com
Leave a Reply