I was sure my first visit to the Fish Pond after a week and a half absence would be a rather boring one.

My hope was that I would be able to put together a few photos of the usual ducks and gulls in a way that was at least halfway interesting. I wasn't even done setting up my blind though when the opportunity to get something above average appeared in the form of a Great Heron.

I first saw his reflection on the waters surface to my left as he dropped down from the top of the tree line and then glided the length of the pond. He settled onto a large fallen tree directly across from my blind and after surveying the pond for danger he disappeared onto the bank.

Taking advantage of his not being able to see me I finished setting up my blind and then settled in to wait for him. He reappeared in almost the same place he had originally disappeared. He was moving slowly and was obviously in his hunting mode. He made a quick stab at the water next to the tree he had first landed on and I expected him to come up with a fish.


I was very surprised when he lifted his beak and there was something small and furry stuck on the end of it. He had used his beak like a spear and it took him a couple of minutes to get his lunch free enough to eat it.

After enjoying his breakfast he flew back towards me, harassing a resting seagull on the way, and perched on the dead tree that the Kingfishers usually bathe from.

He was there for less than a minute when we both noticed the young Bald Eagle that was crossing high above the pond. He seemed more nervous than I thought a young eagle would have made him and he took off and left as soon as the young raptor was out of sight.

When the young eagle did not reappear right away I thought it had probably just kept flying and if I was lucky he would show himself again in an hour or so. Evidently he had landed in one of the trees further up the bank to my right. While I could not see him the Raven's that had spent most of the morning raising cane on the far end of the pond could.

They came out of the tree tops in flights of three's. Nine of them in total. They flew directly to the trees over the ponds inlet stream and their calls turned to the harassing ones I have heard them use before when they are attempting to drive away an eagle. The young eagle almost immediately started to chatter the way that they do when they are cornered. I was feeling bad for him until I heard a second eagle screaming from almost directly above me.

I had not seen the mature bird arrive but it might have been the reason the Heron had left in such a hurry. I didn't actually see it until it was at the waters edge where the stream enters the pond. It must have come down while I trying to locate its young friend in the leaves.

He had caught a medium sized trout and had started to devour it. The crows quickly abandoned their taunting of the younger bird and dropped down to see if they could steal a morsel of the elder birds meal.

Has not in the mood to share though and grasping the fish in his talons he took flight and crossed no more than forty feet in front of my blind on his way to a quieter spot to enjoy his mid morning meal.

It was not the kind of morning I had anticipated but it was certainly one of the best visits I have ever made to the pond. I am hoping that the young bird being so unusually close the an adult is a sign that it might be one of the young from the nest near here. If it is I hope to be able to see it again before it ventures off to find its way in the world.

Get outside and explore! Its a wild and exciting place!

Kevin