Wednesday, June 16, 2010

A Great Blue Heron on Lake Mary

This morning Jack spotted this Blue Heron from the porch window.  It was walking very, very slowly and deliberately along the shallow edge of the lake.  It was most likely scanning the shallow water for fish or frogs.

It ducked it's head and slid underneath our dock and then up on our neighbor's dock still looking for possible delectable morsels to snatch from the water.


Aha!  It seems to have found something suitable and here it's ready to silently slip back into the water to have it's snack!

I have to hand it to our Minnesota Department of Resources (DNR) website.  There's information on just about any subject having to do with...well, natural resources in Minnesota, of course.  I checked to see if there would be any interesting info on herons and sure enough...a plethora of information is available.  Information about herons, cranes, egrets...all sorts of birds of Minnesota. 

This particular link is Minnesota DNR Young Naturalists with resources available for teachers and students.  It's good stuff.

If you're the least bit interested in how we humans can disrupt the natural habitats of our native plants, animals and waterfowl, you might enjoy this article titled Rookery Blues from the Minnesota DNR publication.   It isn't long and it's well written.  It chronicles the demise of an established blue heron breeding place, or rookery, that had been in existance since 1945 and how the local government solved the problem. 

You've heard the phrase "Minnesota Nice"?  Just another example.  We love our native habitats.
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Posted by CherylK at 1:09 PM

11 comments:

  1. Hand clap for Minnesota to care about the natural habitats. I will check out the link.
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  3. It's always a treat to see such a creature.
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  4. Beautiful pictures! How fun to see one so close.
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  5. Nice images. This old world is full of beauty, isn't it?
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  6. Thanks for posting the pictures of this magnificent bird, Cheryl! We don't have blue herons here, but we have trumpeter swans, which have had to be protected for many years.
    I enjoyed the article about protecting the island where the herons nest - thanks for posting the link.
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  7. It has such a majestic look, very graceful walk. One can spend hours watching it. Great shots.
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  8. I love herons. They are so majestic.
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  9. What a beautiful creature! You're so lucky to have such an abundance of wildlife there.
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  10. Just playing catch up, and went through some of your posts (read all about new blogger - I'm leaving well enough alone!).

    These are great shots of the blue heron - we have lots around here and I have to scare them away from my pond or they'll deplete it. Lovely bird anyway.
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  11. he's a beauty
    and so big!
    I'd love to be able to watch him
    you got some great shots
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