Oh, There You Are!

 

“Thoughts swirled around her head like the leaves in the breeze.”

 
~Diana Jaques,

 The Falling Leaves

 

 I have been looking for a Green Heron this whole year, but as luck, and the rules of birding, would have you, I found one completely by accident, months after I should have. They are usually, dependably, everywhere! You remember me mentioning that birding is Sometimes about being in the right place, at the right time? Well once again, my avian friends proved it's true! I am still on a quest to find the Sandhill Crane, which have arrived in the San Joaquin Valley. The map says they are in Lodi, Mokelumne City, the Cosumnes Reserve, and Staten Island on the delta. They are here, I know they are, because you can track them here. I am just not seeing them. Yikes!

 

 So, a couple days ago, we decided to pick a spot on the map, and see if our luck could change a bit. The spot on the map we chose was Staten Island. We had never been there before, so it would be an adventure. As it ended up, there wasn't much to see yet, but it's only a matter of time until the rice is harvested, and will be replaced with water, to provide grain for the wild birds, but aren't quite there yet, so we left. On our way home, I spotted this lovely Green Heron, sitting on a telephone wire. I saw him just by chance! He moved to this tree, while I photographed him, and engaged in a little fishing in the ditch line. He was very accommodating of me, and made my time very happy, as he moved about into one beautiful pose to another. There's the rule of birding, you see what you didn't even know you wanted or needed, to see! 

 

I love it when that Pacific Flyway opens each Autumn. I have to thank the gorgeous migrating cranes, for helping me finally spot my Green Heron.

 

 

An Afternoon With A Green Heron And His Friend

“I tell myself relationships are hard work. No one is perfect.

 There's no such thing as happily ever after.” 

― Laura Nowlin,

  If He Had Been with Me

 

 

I met this guy at the Clifton Court Forebay the other day. I went there to search for ducks and grebes, and I found some, but not in any great numbers. All I saw was a couple Bufflehead and some Ring-necked ducks. There was a few Egrets, but nothing in any great numbers. So I was pleasantly surprised when this gorgeous little bird flew over, and began fishing along the rocks. After a few minutes of searching he found a snack, and as intrigued and impressed as I was, I found I was equally sad for the poor little fish that was about to be swallowed whole. None of it gets any easier. Go for birding with the camera, hoping for an interesting photo that highlights a bird's life, and you many very well come home with beautiful but depressing photo of how all life really works. If only all animals, sea life, and birds were vegetarians! But then again, my friend Boris The Spider would end up a lot bigger! 

 

The Green Heron wasn't the only one fishing that day...

 

Western Grebe and it's lunch of Black Bass

  What a day at the Clifton Court Forebay!

 

 "Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?”

 
~Robert Frost,

   The Poetry of Robert Frost

 

 

The Little Green Punk Rocker Heron

 

“Fall has always been my favorite season. 

The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.” 

~Lauren DeStefano

  Wither 

 

The thing I love most about birding, is how you will very often spot a bird you had no idea you would see. I went to the forebay the other day, in search of shorebirds and ducks, and came home with pics of cormorants, pelicans and this amazing bird, the Little Green Heron. I will never get tired of coming across this little bird. He's only about the size of a crow, making him the smallest of the herons in my area, but all those colors photograph so differently, depending on the time of day, and cloud cover. It's definitely a beauty. The poor little lizard it was eating for dinner probably wasn't as impressed as I was. Yikes! And doesn't he kinda look like punk is it's favorite music genre?