Smart Birds 1

Western science has been slow to recognize intelligence in animals. I suspect this is because since we began to get our food from agriculture there has been little need to observe animals closely in the way that hunters do. I always enjoy seeing animals think and above is a little example I saw out at Esquimalt Lagoon. Great Blue Herons usually wade around until they catch a small fish. Getting their catch from the end of that long beak into their mouth is usually just a matter of opening the beak briefly while tipping the head back so that the catch slides down towards the throat. I've never seen a heron lose a small fish while doing this so I watched with interest when the heron pictured above caught a furiously wriggling eel (above left). I figured he was going to lose it for sure as soon as he opened his bill in order to slide it down towards his mouth since the eel was whipping itself back and forth vigorously. What the heron did in this situation was to wade in to the beach and up onto the shingle. There he dropped his catch on the pebbles where it couldn't swim away to safety. The heron then stabbed it a few times (above center). Once it had stopped moving he picked it up and swallowed it in the usual way (above right). If you think about it, this is a wonderfully complex series of actions. I wonder whether this bird figured this method out for itself or whether it is behavior learned from other herons. I had been watching this heron for some time and earlier saw it twice catch small fish and swallow them without killing them on shore first.

Headless Heron

Actually this Great Blue Heron is just having a nap. It must be very convenient to be able to just tuck your head under a large wing whenever you want to shut out the world. But I don't know as I'd care to try it while balancing on a branch about 30 feet up in a tree. I have several times seen this heron snoozing like this above the West Bay Walkway near Sailor's Cove.

In-Flight Entertainment

We have had very low tides recently and the consequent exposure of tidal flats that are normally covered with water seems to be encouraging increased activity amongst the Great Blue Herons. While I often see one on my morning walk along the West Bay Walkway, I seldom see more than one. Yesterday I saw three in various places along the walkway fishing in the shallows where the water is normally much deeper. I also saw a River Otter just offshore yesterday but there was little of him visible but his head popping up above the water from time to time to do some vigorous chewing and swallowing.

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Why Great Blue Heron? When I look at the above photo I see lots of gray, some black and orange, some yellow and white but no blue of any shade. There is also a "Green" Heron which is equally un-green if the photos are anything to go by. One doesn't mind if the Latin names for plants and animals don't communicate much except to ancient Romans, but generally one expects the common names to refer to some distinctive aspect of the plant or animal. Oh well, sometimes life is just plain disappointing. Things don't make sense and there is not even any good reason for the confusion.

Thoughtful

Thoughtful? This is the Great Blue Heron. I describe this bird as thoughtful because of the way he stands perfectly still for long periods of time. Most birds flap into view, perch beguilingly until I have my camera out, then fly off cackling just as I raise it to my eye. Not the Great Blue Heron. This bird strikes a pose and holds it, for five or ten minutes. Other birds please take note. This is proper behavior, thoughtful!

Gotcha!

I see these Great Blue Herons catching their food almost every day and I am always impressed by how seldom they miss. When they make that stab into the water they usually come up with something wriggling. However, until recently I haven't had a camera that could capture video as well as still photos. The Sony a55 I am now using does both. If you want to watch a Great Blue Heron catching his breakfast in High Definition video, the clip below is only 20 seconds long. Often the waiting and watching is five or ten minutes of concentrated immobility.

Great Blue Heron

A nesting colony of Great Blue Herons is located in Beacon Hill Park, within a few minutes walk from downtown Victoria. The colony has been under attack lately from Bald Eagles who occasionally nest nearby, causing a small controversy amongst locals, some maintaining that the herons should be protected while others say that the eagles and herons are natural enemies and the attacks are simply nature taking its course. However, the herons are a small and at-risk population while the Bald Eagle is thriving - estimated population in BC is 20 to 30 thousand, about a third of the North American total. In any case, it seemed like a rare privilege for a city dweller like myself to be able to approach such a splendid creature so closely and I hope the eagles will find something else to eat.

Animals

Today I cycled out to Esquimalt Lagoon because I wanted to photograph some deer and I saw one near there when I was out at Fisgard Lighthouse a little while ago. Esquimalt Lagoon has an odd history: At the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago a big chunk of ice about 100 meters thick was left by a receding glacier. Sand and gravel piled up around its edges and when it melted it left a depression that is now the lagoon. The lagoon is also the site of the first European landing in this area. Spanish explorer Don Manuel Quimper anchored here in 1790. The birds in the photo above are the indigenous Great Blue Heron and...a Mute Swan. The latter is not indigenous but is native to the UK and has naturalized itself here and in a few other nearby coastal locations after escaping from Beacon Hill Park in Victoria. However, what first attracted my attention to the lagoon was the little fellow below.I thought it was a Sea Otter and had visions of how I could ramble on about the history of the fur trade but when I checked it out, I realize it must be a River Otter, which species often inhabits coastal areas and is a known resident of the lagoon. He was very shy and I had to follow him along the shoreline for some time before I could get close enough to snap the above shot. That was when I saw the other swan, below.Deer - yes, on the way back from the lagoon, there she was posing beautifully by the roadside and my camera in its bag. Pull up, peacefully assemble apparatus, and catch a last glimpse as she disappears into the bush. Ah well, still a splendid morning on the outskirts of Victoria.

Morning Fog

Victoria, like its namesake, is a very civilized, genteel city but it is situated on the edge of the vast forests of the Pacific Northwest and thus shares some of the wildness that lies all around. I have been reminded of this on my morning walks lately, with last week's raccoon and this morning's Great Blue Heron, fishing for his breakfast with the Inner Harbour and the Fairmont Empress Hotel dimly visible in the background.