As I sat down to lunch today, the excited yapping of our neighbors' dog drew my attention. Not that yapping from the said dog is unusual -- quite the contrary! But this time the barking seemed more intense. As it turned out, the dog (if it deserves the name!) had a good reason: Charlie was out.
To be exact, Charlie was standing in our yard on the sea wall, facing the dog (who lives on the opposite side of the canal). I've never seen a heron adopt this posture before -- perhaps the wings are supposed to make him look bigger?
Our almost-next-door-neighbor, Mr. Brown, gave Charlie his name. He's been absent for quite some time, so I was very pleased to see him back! Of course, there's no way of knowing if it's the same heron, but I choose to believe that it is.
As soon as he saw me, Charlie stood straight as a ramrod and peered at me with his piercing amber eyes. Quite impressive.
At about four or five feet tall, he cuts quite a lanky figure when he's all stretched out. When I got too close, he stalked off into the neighbors yard to watch for fish. Apparently he doesn't like crowds. Or dogs!
A few years ago I attended an outdoor display of birds put on by the local raptor center. Many of the birds were doing something very similar to Charlie (some were flapping just a little bit), so I asked about it.
ReplyDeleteCharlie was probably hot. They have a lot of blood in their wings with the thinnest coat of feathers on the underside. A lot like an elephants ears, they hold their wings open like that and it helps to bleed off the heat.
What a fun site Shannon! I've never seen a heron in such a position...almost human like.
ReplyDeleteDo you live really close to the ocean? What a neat living experience. My parents once owned a sail boat and we lived on it for a bit...interesting to say the least:-)
Lots of love,
Sommer
That's really neat. We have herons sometimes in Minnesota, but I've never had a personal relationship with one.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your really sweet comment. Your blog is like chocolate too... Hmm, that gives me an idea.
bmayer, thanks so much for the information! That's really amazing -- and it was quite hot yesterday! I wish it was that easy for me to cool down on a hot day...
ReplyDeleteSommer -- yes, we do live quite close to the ocean. Our canal goes out into a bay, and then into the Gulf of Mexico. I'm not usually much of a beach person, but I'm learning to love the beauty of our area!
Maria Pauline, thank you ;)
Yours in Christ,
Shannon
Wow! I have never seen a bird this big before! If I had seen it, I almost wouldn't have believed it.
ReplyDeleteI missed seeing Charlie yesterday, so I love seeing the pictures! Yay, he's back.
ReplyDeleteTiffany
I tagged you on my blog!
ReplyDeleteHehe, I think it looks like he has his "hands on his hips" at the dog! :)
ReplyDeleteThe heron that frequents my grandparents' condo property is named Oscar. There must be something about these birds that inspires people to name them! :-) Charlie is quite impressive, I must say.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I meant to tell you how much I admired your swimsuit solution! I have not yet hit on a combination I feel totally comfortable with, so your suit gave me some good ideas. Thanks!
It seems like it'd be pretty impressive to meet a bird that close to a normmal human adult in height.
ReplyDelete