365 Urban Species: #011 Great Blue Heron

Urban species #011: Great Blue Heron Ardea herodias

While many city people would like to pretend that certain species don't exist--squirrels and blue jays, never mind pigeons and rats--they usually feel quite differently about the great blue heron. A quick Google search turns up a golf course in Atlantic City, an Ontario Casino, a Michigan massage school, a New York City arts center, a Seattle biotech company, a "manufactured home community" in Miami, and countless bed and breakfasts all bearing this bird's name. No one is ashamed to have herons nearby. Of course, a great blue heron is almost as content in a drainage ditch as it is on the shore of a pristine lake. As long as prey is available--which can include dragonfly larvae and other insects, fish, frogs, snakes, crayfish, and even mice and voles--the herons may stop by. They prefer quieter settings to nest, so a breeding great blue heron may fly miles to hunting grounds, commuting, in a sense. Communal rookeries (in New England often in dead forests flooded by beaver dams) can be quite densely populated. North America's largest heron does migrate, but some individuals find city living to be acceptable year-round. Once again, we see the northern city's unfrozen winter water is an attraction for a most attractive urban species.

photographs by cottonmanifesto

( The heron preens itself. )