standing stock still

standing stock still

in shallows a great blue heron

forages alone

So long and thin and nearly the color of the pond, yet unmistakably a Great Blue Heron, the first I've seen this spring, though they are supposedly year-round residents in Iowa. The bird's large size makes it easy to recognize, as well as the long, wide black stripe over the eye and the fringed wing feathers. Somehow its appearance makes me feel winter is finally over, even more than a whole flock of robins hunting in the pasture.
          Here's a cool fact about this heron, from allaboutbirds.org: Great Blue Herons have specialized feathers on their chest that continually grow and fray. The herons comb this “powder down” with a fringed claw on their middle toes, using the down like a washcloth to remove fish slime and other oils from their feathers as they preen. Applying the powder to their underparts protects their feathers against the slime and oils of swamps (or, I might add, farm ponds).
          In Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe, Ford Prefect tells Arthur Dent that the most import item to travel with is a towel. Well, these birds fly with built-in towels. Way to go, Great Blue!