The Herons Dived (I Would Have Said "Dove")

And I rose
In a rainy autumn
And walked abroad in shower of all my days
High tide and the heron dived when I took the road
Over the border
And the gates
Of the town closed as the town awoke.

~Dylan Thomas

I know I have used that section of one of Thomas' poems before (and I know it is neither rainy nor autumn), but the heron diving and town waking felt right for today.

Somehow VM and I arrived early for our walk. I woke before my alarm and decided to see if the cat lady was still feeding the animals. After driving around and observing nothing - no woman, arms full of plastic food-filled containers, I stopped for photos of the park cats before meeting up for the walk. The cats were lounging in the grass as if they were waiting for something. One straggler walked the dry drainage ditch. Little did I know....

Park cats

Straggler. I don't know what has happened to the big grey we used to see.

We headed down stream along the path and found heron after heron fishing for breakfast. Perhaps it is the drought. Streams and ponds are drying up. But the creek still flows and the herons gather.
We saw two Great Blue Herons, two Yellow-crowned Night Herons, and at least four (I really think five) Green Herons. This is not a rookery. We hike this path fairly regularly and are excited if we see two herons stalking the shallows.  We have now bettered our record morning (of only a few days ago) by100%.

You don't believe me? Well, I wouldn't believe me either, but I had witnesses - one living and one electronic.*

Here you go!

The first Great Blue Heron. I took photo after photo as he stalked into and out of deeper water. He did take one splashing dive, but did not come up with anything we could see.

As I watched him I spied another heron along the far bank. This was a Yellow-crowned Night Heron. A much smaller bird, I wondered if it was following the GBH to a good fishing spot.

This my help you see it a little better.

YCNH

We saw another YCNH down stream a little ways, but I had no chance for a "good" shot - only these quick and terrible flight shots.

We had started to wonder at the riches of herons when we came upon this GBH preening. It must have just caught something and was dripping wet.

Another photo of the same bird.

Just beyond the Main Street bridge we saw a Green Heron wading and realized we were now at a record (for us). Something startled the heron and he flew into the trees followed by these two Green Herons (We are at 7 now, but who is counting. I AM).

Then we saw this Green Heron - #8.

Broody shot of the same bird.

And another standing tall. We suspect this was one that flew off earlier because of the location.

And another - this too not double counted.

The city has installed an new footbridge at the old low-water crossing. It wasn't here two days ago. Perhaps it is there for the 4th of July celebration (so that people can access parking and the carnival with ease) and designed to be moved after. Perhaps it is secured in some fashion that I didn't see. But I have seen the trees wash down this creek in fast moving water and I have my doubts this bridge would survive one of the floods we have seen in recent years (it's feast or famine these days - drought or flood).

The former low water crossing.

Looking upstream from the footbridge

Looking downstream

And there were a few other things to catch our eye - pigeons feeding on something at another footbridge (Ah, she'd been here after all. The cat lady must get up very early.), a young squirrel who gets entirely too close to Zelda (for the squirrel's safety and the calm of the dog), and some wildflowers bloomed at the edge of the water.

Golden Wave

Pigeons eating the last of the cat food.

He doesn't look before heading down the tree, but he moves fast once he sees us.

As I drove away from the park, one last Green Heron flew overhead. I'm reporting 8, but there were 9.

NOTES:

* iNaturalist, where I report wildlife, requires a photo or audio recording. We joke: If you didn't take a photo, you didn't see it. eBird, Cornell's birding database, trusts. One can simply report the birding list. But if you see something rare (rare or rare numbers or rare for the time of year) you had best have a good description and/or a photo.

I knew this was NOT Smokey because of the collar and the white paws. Still, the rest looked like it could be a relative.

FINAL NOTE: This descendant of "Smokey" the cat (who belonged to our neighbors and was, apparently, a series of cats - as one disappeared, the father of the family would replace it with another look-alike. He may not have fooled his children, but he fooled me.) was lounging in the street today. He did not move the first time I drove past, but did get up and saunter away on the second pass (I went back to the house for my cell phone.).