Friday, July 9, 2010

Caught: a big one!

A couple of days ago a neighbor called to tell us with great excitement that a Great Blue Heron had just flown in and landed in the park in front of our house.
 The Great Blue is the largest North American heron, standing up to 4 feet tall (120 cm). They are also common and widespread so we've seen them often—but never standing around right in front of our house! The city park is on a lake, so we've seen a few fly past over the years. A nearby gaggle of middle school kids learning to canoe and banging paddles against their aluminum boats weren't enough to scare it off. Even some people that were unaware of it and walked along the path a few feet away only caused it to fly to the other side of the river. There, fortuitously, it was out in the open so Mr. Rududu could get some excellent photos of it.
We understood the bird's reluctance to leave when we saw the fish it had caught. I think it's a catfish—or maybe a carp—if anyone knows please let me know.  I'm a lot better at identifying birds than fish. One thing for sure, relative to the size of the bird it was BIG and not easy to eat.  These birds swallow small fish whole but this one needed some dissection first.
   By the way, Mr. Rududu digiscopes. He uses a small point and shoot digital camera to take pictures through a small telescope. It's easier to carry the gear around than a full sized camera with big lenses and we can also use the scope to look at birds. Our rule: look at the bird first and then take a picture. How great that his best ever photo of this species could be taken right by our city house.
Edited to add: probably a yellow bullhead, which is a type of catfish.

No comments: