Celebrity Herons

We went to Sapsucker Woods the other day and saw the bowl-full-of teenagers (a.k.a. herons’ nest) chatting and looking around out in the pond.

Then we noticed what they were viewing from their balcony seats. Down in the pond, one of the adult herons looked to the right…

…and looked to the left…

…and looked at us.

So very patient. We waited and watched and were eventually reminded that all things come to those who wait.

In addition to its children watching from the nest, there is a dragonfly watching the whole show in the right foreground. Someone else was watching, too.

Who was in his turn being observed by others…

One of the funniest things I saw was a frog literally racing across the lily pads directly in front of the hunting heron. I saw at least two frogs do this. Were they adolescents daring one another to ring the doorbell of their grumpy neighbor? The stakes were pretty high for the frogs! But apparently the heron had an appetite for fish.

While watching the heron, several different dragonflies demanded our attention as well. There were this one,

this one,

this one,

and these two shameless exhibitionists. The female is laying eggs, we guessed.

We heard many more birds than we saw. But this is a new one for me, a great crested flycatcher.

The other new sighting for me was a pair of American redstarts. I’ve seen the male before, but not the female.

We were very hot by the time our stroll ended, so we ate the lunch we’d brought and drank gallons of water before heading back home. Older Daughter enjoyed the heron fishing the most, Younger Daughter liked the frogs, and I liked the redstarts. So there was something for everyone and more besides — as usual!