Little Blue Herons

I left the house without a plan.  I veer off the interstate making a snap decision when I cross over the Menunketusuck.  It's been a long time since I was in there.

It's not a long river, but if you take in the two meandering side channels that feed into the main river, it makes a good day trip.  I start by heading upstream.  A mile up is a dam with a good long pond above it.  The last bit is a nice forested section that almost makes up for the background highway noise.  But my real reason is to see if there is any chance of a portage into the pond.  Unfortunately, the one side where one could portage is fenced off.  That's that.

I head back past the put-in, past an Osprey nest with two healthy chicks, and around the first big bend - that's where the river gets good.  The few houses are left behind and I enter a high salt marsh of spartina patens - "salt hay".  I learned something about Willets here, because there are never any Willets in this first section although everything is right for nesting except that the forest is only about a hundred yards back.  Forests and the trees at the edge of the forest make a Willet's ground nest an easy target.  There are a few Willets in the marsh, but they're down a ways where the marsh is wide open.

The air is hazy, which is holding the temperature down some.  It looks like humidity, but the weather report later says that it is haze from western forest fires.

One of the old shoreline cabins has been removed.  The wildlife refuge has been buying properties on the east side.  There's just one more old house to go.

Great Egret

I turn up into the east side channel.  There are several Great Egrets in the area today.  I spot a couple Snowy Egrets and one Little Blue Heron that is in the middle of a phase change from immature to adult.  It's the first time that I've seen this.  It is half blue-gray, half white. The surprise is that the coloring isn't random but a distinct pattern with white bars on the wings...almost as if it was a different species.  I flush that bird and one of the Snowy Egrets several times as I paddle in and out of the side channel. They are making an effort to stay together.

Adolescent Little Blue Heron shaking its stuff

Two Little Blue Herons

I drop down to the railroad bridge spotting a couple more Great Egrets and an Osprey.  The current under the railroad bridge can really move during full flood or ebb, so this is far enough. 

Mature Little Blue Heron

On the way back out, I get to see the Little Blue Heron in the open on the bank with two Snowys, except the Snowy's are actually immature Little Blue Herons in their white phase.  Snowys and Little Blues are the same size but Snowy Egrets have black bills and bright yellow feet while Young Little Blue Herons have green legs and a bill with a black tip. While I am photographing them, an adult decides to show up. Now, I have four Herons in all the possible age phases.

Adolescent with two first year Little Blue Herons

 I leave them behind and push up through a few more Great Egrets to get back to my put-in.