At some point Great Blue Herons learn to fly. It must be interesting to see them jump off a 50’ perch for the first time. There are no pilot instructors or safety nets below. You just wing it, so to speak.
These pictures show the next step... landing. As they fly around the heron pond for the first time, feeling pretty good about themselves, it must dawn on them at some point, that they don’t know how to land this thing. Here you can see one bird coming in for a landing and heading for the softest spot. You can see from the pictures that the air traffic controller is visibly upset that his guidance is being ignored. For that matter “the softest spot” isn’t too pleased either. In airline parlance, the flights truly were stacked up over the Heron Pond that day.
At first I thought they were fighting, and really, “the landing spot” has a right to be ticked off. After the most amazing aerial show I’ve ever seen, displaying unbelievable balance and agility, the birds finally righted themselves and got into a “hey, no big deal” mode.
Ron Logan is a Heron Observation Network Volunteer.
Learn more in Forest & Wildlife Monitoring: Avian Ambassadors.
