Rarely have I captured a Great Blue Heron poised to strike, as this one is. It had not been fishing here, one of its favored spots, for the past few days. It looked a mite hungry.
There had been a good many boats on the water during that time; they almost certainly kept the big bird away. That isn’t a knock on boaters, just a reflection of how shy this great bird is. I’ve only to open a window, and it’ll fly off. Just a single boat in sight will keep it away. This was one of those hot, humid days in July that kept boaters at home. Of course, I’m reporting only what I see here in the southern end of the pond. The boat ramp is at the southern tip, leading me to think there may be more boats down here, and fewer in the far northern end, where the Great Blues are also seen, and where they may seek refuge when boats are present here.
In the past, I often saw three or more Great Blues on the pond at one time. The photo of four friends, just below, I took on January 12, 2007 with my very first digital camera, a little point-and-shoot. In years past, I saw even greater numbers of Double-crested Cormorants. I captured a small flock of them in the water on May 20, 2011, swimming partly submerged, as they are wont to do. The photo is near the bottom of the post.