July, 2020
On this last afternoon of my stay at Scenic Beach State Park, it seemed everywhere I went I found Great Blue Herons. Every beach I drove past, every inlet I looked at, every rocky outcrop I saw, they were everywhere. They were around me at every turn. They wouldn’t leave me alone! What a terrible trouble to have, eh? 🙂 Indeed, a group of Herons is often called a “hedge” of Herons, and I certainly began to feel hedged in by them.
After being out and about most of the day, on my drive in the big white truck back to the campsite, I stopped and parked on the causeway at the saltwater bay where I had seen the Bald Eagles the other day, hoping to see the Eagles again. They weren’t there, but a Great Blue Heron was, of course! So I took its photograph.
Here’s that bay (below), with the tide about half way in. The flowers in the foreground are on the edge of the road/causeway. The tide is coming in, flowing under that short bridge, flowing from the right side of the photo to the left side.
There is a Heron way way way off in the distance on the left in the photo above. Even in my original, large size photo, the Heron is hard to see. In the photo here, you can’t see it, but it’s there. Because the Heron was so far away, my photos below are a bit fuzzy, but you’ll get the idea.
“Is that a tasty fish coming my way?”
“Oh, I think so!”
“Ack, it’s off to the left!”
“No, it’s off to the right!”
In the end, no fish was caught. The Heron stood up again and continued to stand stock still for a long time. I watched it for awhile, hoping to catch it in the act of catching a fish, but I was no more successful than it was.
Here’s a video I took of the Heron. It’s not doing anything except standing there. The video is interesting to me because I had to take three separate videos in order to get this one. My brain (and my arms and my head) kept following the water as it flowed past the Heron. I was doing my best to hold still and keep the Heron centered, but it was surprisingly difficult. Eventually, I picked a rock on the sandy outcropping on the right, and then simply kept my camera view lined up with that rock. The stream of water is the saltwater flowing in from Hood Canal into this bay as the tide rises.
And then I left that bay and the causeway and drove on back to my campsite. Oops, nope, just before driving back into the campground, I saw a road off to the left … a road I had not yet explored. So I turned left and meandered down a narrow and really pretty country road.
The road wound around back in through these trees for about a mile. At first blush, it looks like there’s nothing along this road, doesn’t it? In fact, there were many homes along this road, although they were spaced widely apart, and they were built so far back in the trees that they were difficult or impossible to see. What I could see were the driveways that wound their way back in through the trees to the homes. Here are three of the driveways (below).
And here’s a fourth driveway (below) with a very nice gate across it. Somehow I wasn’t surprised when I realized that the gate had four Great Blue Herons on it. Today seemed to be the day of the Heron. 🙂
It was now late afternoon and time to head back to my campsite and Towhee the Trailer. This would be my last night here. It was time to head home … sigh. But who knows, maybe an adventure or two awaits tomorrow morning before I head out? Or even on my way out? Stay tuned!