Mike Powell

I can usually count on spotting at least one Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) during my visits to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Sometimes, when the tides are right, I will see them in the waters of the bay, but most often they are in the small ponds throughout the refuge.

Last Friday I caught sight of this heron in the shallow waters of one such pond. The heron was intently focused on the water and eventually plunged its head into the water. When the water is deep, the heron will thrust violently into the water, but in this case the movement was much smaller.

I watched and waited as the heron slowly lifted its head to see if it had been successful in catching a fish. As you can see in the final photo, the results were not clear. Obviously the “catch” included a lot of vegetation, but I can’t tell for sure if there was also a small fish. A few seconds later the heron seemed to swallow, dipped its bill into the water to rinse it, and resumed its fishing.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.