Blue Heron Perched On The Barn Tonight

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Dix

Minister of Fire
May 27, 2008
6,686
Long Island, NY
Not some thing we usually see in the middle of the island

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Do you have ponds nearby?
 
Herons eat frogs. If there are frogs nearby that might be why it is hanging around.
 
It took off not long after this pic.

Slim pickens, me thinx !

Was a sight to see !
 
We are close to the water and see herons frequently. They are very cool birds.
 
When I was a kid in FL there was a regular heron that would fly the lake. If it saw me on the dock fishing it would loop around and land near by. I would switch gear and start catching small sun fish which I would throw onto the lawn near the bird. It would grab em, flip em, and swallow them head first. 3 or 4 fish, and it would take off til the next day.
Eventually it would come to st and 3' to my side on the doc and wait for the fish. Really cool, I'm going to have to look for a pic, I'm sure there's one somewhere.
 
We have lots of herons around here. We also have lots of sandhill cranes.

Last week I was doing brakes on the car and sitting on a milk crate. I heard a noise and looked up and a sandhill crane flew right over my head, so close that I felt the wind off its wings. Scared the crap out of me because these things are huge, they have like a 6 foot wingspan. I honestly think if I was standing up it would have hit me.

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When I get done with yardwork in the evening I'll sit by our decorative pond and enjoy a sunset. We're in a circuit for a Heron. He'll go overhead and land on the top of a big dead oak, and then down to the creek. I recalled that I surprised him in our pond one day, and between (s)he and the snakes, our goldfish dropped from 20 down to one or two.

When he flies by now, I realize he's probably checking to see if the restaurant is open... If I'm there, I guess it ain't.
 
Our house is an A frame built on a rise overlooking a pond. We sometimes get great blue herons spending the night roosting on the roof peak. One morning I looked out and saw all sorts of heron poop on the deck right under the peak. Nasty, but it's a small price to pay for the privilege of watching that bird fly up from the pond to our roof peak through the floor to roof glass in our living room.
 
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