The spring migration brought us this Great Blue Heron, seen here performing in Tuesday’s light rain as only a Great Blue can. She would imitate a graceful French curve for many minutes, then suddenly uncoil and become a lethal fishing spear.
We hope that this immigrant will like our community and become a resident. Feathered residents don’t need fishing licenses here, nor do they pay taxes.
There’s a growing concern by Maine wildlife officials and bird lovers generally about an apparent steady decline in Great Blue Heron breeding in Maine. Human disturbances of the birds’ habitat and the resurgence of bald eagles, which prey on the herons’ young and otherwise harass nests, apparently are at least part of the problem.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on April 15, 2025; sex assumed.)