The Heron & The Squirrel

My wife & I saw the most amazing thing yesterday morning. A great blue heron roosted in our neighbor’s sweet-gum tree. For longest time it diligently tried to catch a squirrel! The squirrel wanted something at the end of the branch. The giant bird lurked and lunged time and again, but each time it speared at the squirrel, the squirrel ducked to the underside of the branch. This contest went on for at least 45 minutes. Although we’ve seen many herons, we’ve never seen one trying to catch a mammal before.
Inspired by this incident, we got out the forms, bird books and binoculars and registered today’s sightings for Cornell University’s Great Backyard Bird Count for this weekend – something we participate in practically every year. We’d decided to pass on it this year, but with that heron’s actions we just couldn’t. Among the species we counted were red-winged blackbirds, purple fitches, a red-bellied woodpecker, and a yellow warbler – as well as the usual blue jays, robin, Eurasian ring-necked doves, seagulls, red-tailed hawks, etc.