Late this afternoon, thunder rolled in the distance. Knowing that Mr. PJ does not like the rain, I decided that it might be prudent to get him down the hillside, let him do his business and get him back inside before any rainstorm caught us. Well, that was the plan, at least. Once we reached his "preferred spot", I got a bit distracted. A bird caught my full attention and I promptly forgot the possibility of a storm. I, also, forgot the dog. He sat patiently while I tromped through the palmettos to get a clear shot of the bird.
Back up to the first inkling that something interesting was occurring in the marsh. A fleeting glimpse of a heron quickly evacuating the spot was my first clue. The bird squawked as it went westward. It seemed to be a bit too noisy for just an ordinary flight. That bird was trying to distract me and lure me from the spot. That meant one thing...a youngster was hiding in the area.
Sure enough after just a few moments, I spied the little one. A young Yellow Crowned Night Heron was hidden beneath the old oak tree. This tree has several branches that swing low over a small pool of water that lies between the marsh and shoreline. The pool attracts many tiny crustaceans and minnows which are perfect for a young bird. These critters are more or less trapped in the pool making it easy for a youngster to practice his fishing skills. This bird still had his "camouflage-wear" of speckled feathers. He blended quite well with his surroundings!
The setting allowed me to get great photos of the young bird without making it feel too ill at ease. Eventually, I apologized for the intrusion and eased my way back up to where the old dog patiently waited. He was almost oblivious of my absence and the rains held off so all was well.
Yesterday afternoon, Mr. PJ and I had a new visitor at the pier. The small Green Heron entertained us with his fishing techniques. His use of lures (bits and pieces of marsh grass) was pretty ingenious but my interest was more in the fact that he was using a "plunge" technique instead of the usual stalking. Green Herons are pretty versatile birds to be able to swap up their methods to suit the need.
Today, however, yet a different heron came to visit. While Mark was throwing the net to feed our resident Great Blue Heron, Moe, a sudden flutter of wings shifted our sights to the newcomer. A graceful Yellow-crowned Night Heron had flown to the pier. It seems that the place is becoming quite popular with the herons, lately!
The Yellow-crowned Night Heron is one of my favorites. While this bird does not employ the intelligent techniques of the Green Heron, its grace and beauty make it worth watching. Despite its name, the Yellow-crowned Night Heron often hunts during the daytime hours. It will quietly fly into an area, pick a spot that is slightly secluded and, then, wait for prey to come to it. The smallish bird feeds mainly on crustaceans but has no problem taking a fish, frog or insect if the opportunity arises. The Yellow-crowned Night Heron has also been known to feed upon small turtles as its stomach secretes an acid that can dissolve the shells.
You just never know what will visit the Bayou! Each day is a new adventure if the time is taken to observe the surroundings.
Usually in the avian world, parents can hatch eggs, feed young and train them to be on their own merry way in just a matter of a couple of months. Once the little ones learn to fly well and can hunt for their own food, the parents leave them to their own resources. This is to allow the adults to start the process over again and have several broods during the warmer seasons. The little birds are usually well on their way to survival when they are less than a month old.
I say "usually" because there are occasions when a parent bird will remain with the young for a longer time. I have been watching the birds on the Bayou for a good many years and can say that one of my favorites is the Yellow-crowned Night Heron. This bird is one of the smartest birds around as the ones here have figured out that they can beg for food. It is these night herons that will befriend me enough that they will eat from my hand. I do have to watch the fingers, though, as they would just as soon snatch that as the mullet that I am offering. While observing the Yellow-crowned Night Herons, I have come to realize that they are some of the few birds that spend a bit more time raising their young. Even if the parent birds have a second brood during the summer, the juveniles from the previous brood are still being trained to find food. The last brood of the season finds the mother bird tending the youngsters well into the winter months. This, I am almost certain, is to assure that the juvenile birds will survive during the lean times. Fish and crabs are far more plentiful during the warm months. The birds find plenty to eat then but later in the year, food is scarce. It takes the guidance of a parent bird to help the youngsters survive.
A pair of the night herons were bracing against the cold north wind recently. I noticed that the pair included one adult bird and one youngster. Perhaps this is the lone survivor of the last brood. They both appeared healthy enough and seemed to prefer each other's company over mine. With the north wind pushing the tide far from the pier, it was probably a lot easier for them to get food than for me to try to give a helping hand. Mama Bird had this. She needed no help from me!
This must be a good year for baby birds. Usually, it seems that most birds nest during the springtime and then maybe once again during the summer. My cousin, Michelle, has numerous bluebird houses in her yard and each pair of bluebirds continue to nest even though the summer is starting to wane into fall. Here it is the same thing. I have noticed that my shorebirds are nesting more times than usual this year. Just a few days ago, I was photographing a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron as it perched itself on the pier. I assumed that this was of the last nesting for the summer but, apparently, I was wrong. Today, I came across a tiny night heron as it was trying to catch something for supper. It was so thin and puny that I worried about the little thing. Perhaps its mother had put it out on its own far too soon. I watched a bit to see if it would catch a fiddler crab or if it was lacking in hunting skills.
The little tot tried hard to snatch up a fiddler crab but was having no luck. Just as I thought that I was going to have to lend a helping hand, the bird turned its attention to the bull minnows that were trapped in the tide pools. These were far easier prey for the little newbie bird. After two or three minnows went sliding down the bird's gullet, I felt a little more at ease. Maybe the little thing was not adept enough to catch the fast fiddler crabs but those minnows would fill his belly. I needn't worry.
Yellow-crowned Night Herons are some of the most proficient hunters that live around the Bayou. Their hunting skills cannot be matched by the other birds. They will stand motionless for long periods of time until some hapless critter wanders (or swims) near them. They then snatch their prey from the water and down it all in one action. Although they have these great skills, they are not above begging for a free handout. These, I readily give since I really like night herons. It made me happy to see that this little one was well on its way to surviving! Good job, Little Fellow, good job!
This is going to seem like a rather disgusting post but for the life of me, I cannot find anything much about the topic I wish to discuss. Bird puke. Yep, bird puke. Most of us that use a woods, field or bayou as our playground are accustomed to finding bird poop or other forms of scat on our daily hikes. It becomes to be a watch sign for whatever critter was there before us. A lot of the critters use their scat as territory markers or even as warnings to other critters. "I was here first. LEAVE!" Then there are ones that just poop wherever and whenever the urge strikes..namely birds. With an exception of a few (think Green Heron here) that will literally drop poop on you as a method of defense, most will just drop and leave it. Not many of the critters puke on demand though. Most critters that go around vomiting are ill but not all. For some this is a very handy habit. Which brings me to the bird puke in question!
Now for all you ever wanted (and probably a whole lot more) to know about Yellow Crowned Night Heron puke! Ms. Ez and I headed to the pier for our late evening hike. The sun was already starting to slide down behind the pines when we set out so this had to be a quick dash. Once on the pier, the old dog sniffed a pile of gunk on the boards. (Remember, dogs are so prone to sniff icky things.) She knows better than to ever "taste" the stuff but sniffing is not out of the question. I took one look at the wad and knew just what had deposited the "point of interest". My friend the Yellow Night Heron had obviously been feasting on fiddler crabs recently. The entire mass was nothing but assorted crab hulls. A closeup view revealed whole claws, legs and backs of the unlucky crabs. The sun had dried and bleached the mess to the point that if ever touched it would most likely disintegrate but for now it was intact. This was fortunate for me since the sun had also "deodorized" the three inch long pellet. I knew this to be from the Yellow Night Heron simply because its main diet is crustaceans. In bleak times, the bird is not above asking for a handout of minnows but it truly prefers the crabs. Since the bird cannot digest the hard hulls of the crabs it ingested, it spits them back out in a hard pellet-like mass. This wad is sort of a mosaic of what the bird ate for dinner!
So! If you ever want to find out just what your local Yellow Crowned Night Heron is doing whilst you are asleep at night (they do feed during the day, too, contrary to what their name indicates), just break open one of these regurgitated crab mosaics! You can then view just how many and of what type crustacean the bird found as a meal. Now...doesn't that just make you want to go investigate bird puke? I thought not. Although I must admit that I did find it interesting enough to photograph! (Ha! All of you folks who thought wildlife photographers only went around taking pictures of pretty birds, cute otters, handsome alligators and such have just been proven wrong! We also take pictures of some of the most disgusting things!)
