An Unusual Feeder Bird

Shortly after waking up this past Monday morning, my wife yelled (nicely) up the stairs and told me hurry to our guest room window looking over our deck towards our feeding station. That always means that something unusual is going on bird-wise, and this was no exception! When I got to the window, this is what I saw.

We are lucky to have a small pond behind our house, and we do see Green Herons flying around from time to time, but I never expected this! My wife told me that the heron was first sitting on our deck railing but then hopped up to our hummingbird pole. We noticed fairly quickly that there was a second Green Heron sitting on our fence as well.

After watching the herons for a few minutes, I decided to go around the house and see if the birds would sit still long enough for me to get some photos. It turned out that they weren't bothered by me at all, and I was able to get within about 50 feet of them. The one on top of my hummingbird feeders was so calm that it started to preen.

It was so much fun to spend part of my morning watching and photographing these amazing birds. After I came back inside, the heron on the fence flew down to the grass and then walked up the stairs to our deck, strolling around for a few minutes before flying up to our roof. The other bird finally decided to fly way after our hummingbirds decided they were going to take a stand and try to drive this crazy heron off of their feeders!

In total, the birds hung around and on our deck for about 35 minutes (that we saw - they could have been there long before we came downstairs).  What a memorable morning!

- Rob