Thursday, July 11, 2019

Pond Life 2 - The Hunting Heron


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.


It's ready when a tadpole surfaces momentarily for a breath.


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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