This Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) seemed a little confused when the ponds froze over at my local marshland park and appeared to be trying to stalk fish that he may or may not have been able to see through the ice.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Thats funny. Great photos but wouldn’t it have been amazing if you got the photo of it breaking thru the ice and catching a fish?
I was observing the heron closely, wondering if it would try to actually attempt a strike through the ice and unsure about whether there was any chance that it could be successful. I noticed that there was some whitish stuff near the tip of its bill, and there is a a chance that it had previously made such an attempt.
Oh, no! Poor guy 😦 . I wonder how long he will stay around with the water frozen like that. Or will your temps go up enough where you live to thaw the ice out fairly quickly?
I am hoping that things thaw out quickly or that the heron finds another place to fish. Northern Virginia has a wide range of wintery conditions, but we don’t usually have such cold temperatures for extended periods.
What a fascinating sight….to see him strolling across the ice!! But it does seem like an impossible task for a Great Blue to fish in this weather 😉 Do they stay there all winter (where is this?)?
This is in Northern Virginia. We have periods of sub-freezing temperatures in the winter, like we just had, but the ponds are not frozen solid all of the time. I think that you are right that they can’t fish through the ice. There was so open water in another area of the marsh, where the water was moving, and that was where I expected the heron to be. In the past I have seen Great Blue Herons throughout most of the winter, so I think they somehow manage to spend the cold months with us.
Ah…good to know! Having been a New Yorker all my life till recently, I’ve always considered all of Virginia as ‘the south’.
I saw one on the ice last year too. He looked like he was lurching and having trouble walking on it to me. They can be funny to watch at times.
Nice shots, Mike! This bird is doing a lot better than the deer I saw stranded on the ice unable to get up and walk away.
Yikes. That’s definitely not a good scenario for the deer. The heron at least had the option of trying to fly away,
It is sad when deer find themselves in that position. Recently, in the Adirondacks, a young Moose wandered out on the ice of a lake. Unfortunately, the ice broke half way out under his weight and he was unable to get out. He was seen the next day by a passerby, but it was too late to help him. Over the next few days, the Coyotes, Bald Eagles, and Ravens ate well. Since there are so few Moose in NY, it’s sad to lose even one. I’m glad the heron will never meet the same fate.
He may have had a shock if he tried to dive down to catch any fish