Waterside Reckoning

 

Green Heron getting wet

In the last posting we saw that the fishing prowess of the Green Heron sometimes puts it into the watery element of its prey.

Fluff-drying on the quarry ledge

Back ashore, the baleful look on its face tells us everything about its immersion aversion.

Splashing cormorant

Far beyond its shoulder - out near where the gulls congregate for their fresh-water ablutions and gossip -  a cormorant is gleefully bathing.

At the end of its rinse the cormorant heads to the quarry rim to dry off.

The waterlogged seabird splashes down heavily, because cormorants don't shed water the way gulls and ducks do.

Approaching a sunny and seemingly spacious platform the cormorant is greeted by an ever more baleful look from the heron.

The birds exchange a few insults. The scrappy heron asserts its right of first possession.

A sensible detente ensues. The cormorant spreads its wings atop an adjacent promontory.

Soon, however, covetousness, past glories, poor intelligence, or the burden of a fixed plan get the better of the cormorant.

It launches its superior bulk toward the territory of its bantam neighbor.

They glare at each other across the shattered truce as the heron considers the affront to its boundaries.

It delivers a final apocalyptic warning to the intruder from the confidence of its fish skewering bill at the tip of a whip-quick neck.

The cormorant retreats. The heron accepts its deferential posture and distance once the cormorant respects the necessities of dignified coexistence.