Thanksgiving with the Blue Heron
For the past few years a large blue/grey bird stops by my fish pond just after dawn. This stately heron is an expert fisherman and only shows up in November. He is hoping to spear breakfast. I have mixed feelings about his arrival. It’s getting cold, rains are increasing and wherever he came from its obvious the food supply is dwindling.
My neighbor has an elegant statue of a white heron near her fountain (no fish in hers.), and I have wondered if the “big blue” is first attracted by the decoy and maybe he uses it as a sort of local landmark when he flies over. “Oh yeah, I remember there’s a decent fish pond in that other yard. Think I’ll stop by for breakfast!”
Mind you the first two years he ate up all my little goldfish. I realized this pattern was going to probably become an annual event. Thanksgiving serves up sashimi. Not. It won’t be served again. I was ready the next year and the first morning he arrived I shoed him off and draped bird netting over the pond. The heron keeps returning. My new fish are large and fat and beautiful and he can’t eat them!!!
I wait till he shows up before laying out the netting. The bird sets the time. It is wonderful to watch such a large creature land in the garden. And more spectacular to watch him launch himself into the air on those beautiful wings, and somehow get his gangly body airborne. He just can’t have thanksgiving in my yard anymore J
This is the month to be thankful, thankful “big blue” will go elsewhere for his snacks; and as far as writing goes, thankful I am over half way to the finish line. In my constant search for information relating to my science themes I have figured out what “net” to cast around my characters and plot. It has all finally taken form and I am thankful, thankful, for this breakthrough!
