Great Blue Herons and Bright Red Nandinas!

This morning's hike to the pier started out in the dark. It was easy to see the board path that leads to the Bay simply because of lights on the other side at Keesler Air Base are strong enough to give me a bit of illumination. I love ambling around at this time of morning as no one else is out and about. The world is mine! My animal friends have little fear of me and seem to have even less of Ezzy, the dog. When I reached the edge of the pier, the sun was just casting a reddish glow to the sky but had not shown its face yet. On the opposite end of the pier (Bay side), I notice a large black figure on top of one of the pier posts. It stood out quite distinctly against the faintly lit sky. A Great Blue Heron! So that is what has been leaving me..ummm.. for lack of a nice term.. fish entrails. Every morning, I have been assigned the nasty duty of cleaning what this bird has been leaving strung on posts and dropped on the pier itself. As much as I usually do not like to disturb my marsh friends..this one had it coming! I stopped about half way down the pier.."Go get him, Ez!" I knew she could never reach him on top of the pole and he would definitely fly as soon as she neared him, but I also knew that she loved to hear that term. This time however, she had no clue as to what she was "going" to get. She raced to the end of the pier..the bird sat..she ran around the bench sniffing the boards..the bird sat. Now this is not how I intended this to play out! The bird was supposed to be frightened and fly away..all the while getting the message that I did not want him to mess up my pier! I walked closer..the bird sat. Dumb bird! You are supposed to be flying away in fear! Ezzy, totally confused by this time, raced back up the pier to me. That scared me! Seeing a large dog running toward you on a narrow pier in the middle of winter is not exactly comforting even if that large dog is your own. I knelt on the frosty pier to hold my balance and not be knocked clean off the pier and into the mud below. Ms. Ez took this to mean that I was pleased with her actions and she started to bounce around and lick my face. Oh, my goodness..dog slobber! Ick!!! I looked at the bird. My heron seemed to be glaring at us for our disturbance..it stretched and then flew away as if it was exasperated. Exasperated but not frightened..not at all what I had intended!

After this crazy episode, I took a few pictures of the sunrise and then headed to the house. Ezzy still thinking she had done well, took off after the squirrels. Well, at least she got that right! I wandered around the yard as the sun was shooting beams through the trees. The angle of the rays hit the Nandina bush just right to make the red berries gleam like beacons. I love the brightness.. the cheeriness that the nandinas give the yard in the cold of the winter. While all else seems drab, these add a splash of loveliness to the garden. Nandina is also called Heavenly Bamboo. I really do not think it is a bamboo at all so this label is rather misleading.. perhaps it comes from the habit of the plant to "sucker" outward growing into ever larger clumps. It is an evergreen that produces large clusters of white flowers in Spring. These flowers lead to green berries that ripen in late Fall. The bright red berries will stay all winter or until some hungry bird takes a liking to them. This morning these berries were gorgeous..I love them..then I remembered seeing these on that invasive species plant list for some states. Keep invading Nandina..when you look this lovely, you can have my yard!