A Heron's Life

Great Blue Heron & Mallards
graphite
Aug. 14, 2014

The Great Blue Heron has been hiding most of the summer. I found it last weekend in the shallows downstream. This view is from the Pleasant Street Bridge.

The ducks seem to have no trouble finding the heron. I wonder what they think about each other. The heron has a completely different sort of existence than the dabbling ducks. Ducks scramble about eating aquatic plants and getting in each other's way. The heron stands still as a statue stalking daydreaming fish. And then, like lightening, he stabs the water and swallows the fish whole like Gollum in the Lord Of The Rings. And then the heron waits like a fat anaconda until another fish wanders nearby. The mallards meanwhile have paddled over to other riffles and eddies to snack on whatever floats their way.