Friday, February 6, 2015

The Herons are Back

yes, the herons are back.  There they are out back of the shop on the other side of the fence that divides the federal land from that under the control of the city of Alameda.  A few years back, there were maybe five herons that used to hang out back of the shop.  This year there were twelve that I counted plus a few more hanging out in a Monterey Cypress just off to the right of this pictures edge.
And here we are zoomed in just a bit more on the great blues.  Off to the sides are Canadian geese also hanging out and choosing nesting sites.  I imagine it must be mating season.  Not sure, but the male herons might be the ones with the fancy Mohawks and the females the ones with the more slicked back look.
What a difference a fence makes.  On our side of the fence, nothing is going on bird-wise.  On the west side of the fence, birds are doing their bird thing.  Not that they spend much time thinking about the fence, but they do seem to realize that humans don't go on their side of the fence and so they go about their bird business which is eating and apparently this time of year, reproducing.  Hope it works out for them.