Look what arrived at the feeder today! In 20 years I have not seen on here on the farm until today. The ice storm seems to have had made shy birds hungry enough to risk the feeders. Put out some food, the critters appreciate it!
In just a few minutes, this Heron slurped up 7 fish, have a look at the photos, one after another, down the hatch they went … the last victim was drinking at the waters edge had a narrow escape
Fish 1
Fish 2
Fish 3
Fish 4
Fish 5
Fish 6
This was almost the 7th victim, a narrow escape!
So hard to see in the fall leaves. I missed this one and only saw it when it moved to another perch a little further from me. If it didn’t move, I would have passed right by it. The name refers to it’s feathered legs right to it’s toes, the only others that also have feathered legs are the Golden Eagle and Ferruginous Hawk.
The Sandhills are plentiful these days, this flock in the Stayner area is well over 1000 birds. Daily, smaller flocks are passing over our farm in the Beaver Valley, we can usually hear them before we see them as they are very noisy when flying … they sound like a litter of young racoons at war. I literally look around for racoons, then noticed the sound is coming from the sky.
