Our Summer Guests

 A new sound woke me up around 3 AM one day this summer -- kind of like children rapidly banging rocks together, but faster -- a clacking sound that you can hear by Googling great blue heron chicks.  The youthful herons clack their bills together whenever mom or dad approach their nest to deliver a tasty piscine meal -- in this case looking like B-52 bombers gliding past our living room window and into a tree in our back yard. 

The adult herons captured the meals along the shoreline of Wrangell Narrows, only 100 yards or so from our doorstep.   Thus, commuting made them frequent fliers over our yard.  As they entered our air space they would let out a single squawk and clacking from the nest immediately erupted to return the greeting.

What a treat!.  In fact it wasn't just one nest, but two in the forest sanctuary we protect behind our home.  As far as we know a pair began nesting there last year, but they set up housekeeping at the far end of the woods so Kären only discovered them during an "explore."  But this year, one pair built a nest in full view of our yard.

Thus, most mornings from mid May until mid July I awakened to find Kären sitting in a chair she positioned close to our house where she could get a good view of the action.  Of course this action precipitated inaction on our part.  We didn't mow the lawn so as not to disturb our "tenants" and towards fall Kären's deer herd either trampled or ate most of the rest of the lawn.  What a deal!

Below are a few of the (probably over a thousand) photos Karen took this past summer.

These pre-historic looking and sounding birds behind our house seemed out-of-place.

How many do you count?  It looks like not everybody is accounted for.

So does a heron swallow it's food up or down?

Did you knock?  Notice the black "caps" on the chick as compared

to the adults in the last couple of images

Eventually this nest got pretty crowded with five "babes."

Moving out, it's a big job taking care of feathers.

Testing the wings.  Notice it's short bill perfect for clacking.

Parental duty -- off to find a fish.

Success!  Food for the family.

The goodies are plentiful in Wrangell Narrows.

Soon it will be winter when fishing is tough.

We pray for good luck for our family. 

Wait a minute.  These aren't herons!

Sorry, I got confused.  Our neighbor's ducks wandered into

the ponds in our yard.