Remembering those years of early parenthood, when we would sometimes take the kids for a week on the beach in the winter (before school grades and activities kept them here), we could find Yellow-crowned and Black-crowned Night Herons on the backwaters of places like Laguna Atascosa and So. Padre Island (not on the Gulf beach, too wavy), right along with the Great Blue Herons, Louisiana Herons, Cattle Egrets, Common Egrets, Little Blue Herons, Tri-colored Herons, and sometimes even Roseate Spoonbills, and any number of terns, gulls, skimmers, shorebirds, Brown Pelicans, some feeding along the watery irrigation ditches next to busy highways (not the pelicans!), or watching from a dock or a tree branch as the shrimp boats would come in to Pt. Isabel. So, I think if the herons seem 'tame' here, it's because they ARE used to people, and sometimes not above mooching a by-catch fish or dead shrimp meal or two.
Those southern locations in winter are good spots to watch the different fishing techniques of the waders! If you go to Aransas and take the boat trip, you can see all of the above AND Whooping Cranes feeding along the shallow waterways, paying no attention to boat traffic. Holly Peirson Columbus, Anoka Co. > Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:54:17 -0500 > From: d...@mac.com > Subject: Re: [mou-net] close up look at Black-Crowned Night-Heron Minnehaha > Creek, Minneapolis > To: MOU-NET@LISTS.UMN.EDU > > Years ago, when I had a sailboat on Harriet, there was a BCNH that hung > around on the sailing dock during the day. It *seemed* to enjoy watching > people. One day I was tied to the dock doing maintenance on my boat, and the > bird stood there watching me the whole time, tilting its head this way and > that. People could pass by it on the wide part of the dock, and it was only > slightly wary or anxious about being within feet of people. > > When evening came, it would fly off the the stone wall on the NW side of the > lake and fish. Other BCNH would roost on the SW in the willow trees. It was > fun to have him/her around. > > > On Jul 21, 2010, at 9:36, Madeleine Linck wrote: > > > I watched a BCNH from about 10 feet away catch and eat a fish yesterday; > > the view was from the pedestrian trail just west of where Nokomis Ave > > crosses the Creek (and north of Minnehaha Pkwy). A lady walking a dog > > said the heron hunts there every day. I had never seen a BCNH so close > > before and it seemed completely unphased by my presence. > > Madeleine Linck > > Medina, Hennepin Co. > > > > ---- > > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > > David Bergum <d...@mac.com> > [1282 Wander Rd, Isabella, MN] 218-365-0887 > POBox 696 218-206-2133 Skype > Ely, MN 55731 612-723-7135 Mobile > > ---- > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
