This week I watched a Green heron masterfully working the
pond's edge.
Its forward-directed eyes give it better binocular vision
than most birds for pinpointing prey.
It can dart out of stillness like an arrow from a drawn bow.
After a while the heron changes strategy. It climbs stealthily into shrubbery at the far side of the pond. Suddenly its head snaps forward to pluck a dragonfly from the foliage.
Notice the nearly transparent wings above its beak.
Back
on the ground the heron stares into the water with statuesque stillness.
Then it dives below the
surface to bring up a morsel.
It clambers
back onto the rock with the aid of wet wings.
Its
victim is the nymph of a large dragonfly species, probably one of the Common
green darners that frequent the pond.
The heron flips its meal around head first for easier
swallowing.
The hunter has a complicated beauty precisely adapted to its
purposes.
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