Stately Great Blues

     Great blue herons are large, stately birds, particularly in flight.  In shallow water and on land they are long-legged and have lengthy necks and beaks, making them about four and half feet tall.  In the air they appear really big, and startling, and vaguely resemble flying dinosaurs.  But they are also most majestic in flight, with their wings beating slowly, powerfully, necks drawn back in a tight S and long legs trailing behind for balance and steering.  Occasionally one in flight will utter a loud, hoarse call that might be a little frightening. 
     Although they are called blue, they really are gray, with a black stripe through each side of the face.  And in spring, their breeding plumage has  gray plumes on their backs and throats and black ones extending from the back of the head.    
     This heron species is common through most of North America, including here in the Middle Atlantic States.  And they have close relatives in Eurasia and Africa.  Most northern birds drift south for the winter where the water is still open to catch prey.  But some of them stay north all winter, if they can find open water where they can get food.  Birds do not migrate to escape cold, but to find reliable sources of food for the winter.      
     Great blues are predatory, eating large and small fish, frogs, crayfish, snakes, larger insects, mice and other critters in waterways, impoundments, wetlands, backyard goldfish ponds and meadows.
One day in March a few years ago, a great blue caught and ate all the goldfish in our suburban backyard pond.  We had to put a nylon net over our pond to protect their orange replacements.   
     Great blues hunt day and night, and individually, stalking slowly through shallow water to snare aquatic critters, moving forward carefully, step by step so as not to alarm potential prey into fleeing.  They swallow their victims whole and headfirst, which allows them to go down easier without fish scales getting caught in the birds' throats.  They dunk the mice they catch in water to slick the fur so they can swallow those rodents easier. 
     Between fishing forays, great blues perch on tree limbs near water, in cattail marshes and in harvested corn fields with stubble that must, to the herons, resemble cattails.  When resting in those habitats, they are hunched to resist weather and be less visible.
     Great blues raise young in colonies in stands of tall trees near water, including at least a few in the Mid-Atlantic States.  They begin nesting in March when deciduous trees are still bare, allowing us to see their large, bulky stick cradles.  Parent herons constantly shuttle food to their three or four young in each nursery until June when the offspring fledge their nests.
     Young and older great blues scatter across the countryside and visit any body of water that yields food to them through the rest of the summer and into the fall.  Sometimes they fight over hunting areas by flying aggressively at each other and calling raucously and repeatedly.
     Look for great blue herons in your area anytime of the year.  They are readily noticed many times, stately, and a bit startling, and much an intriguing part of the landscape wherever water exists.