Saturday morning

Back! She is back!

The heron is back at the pond, looking bigger and more beautifully blue-grey. I am convinced that last year she was a juvenile. Now she looks full grown. Jessie and I had finished our walk - we walked both loops this morning, something I haven't done in quite some time. The pond looked so pretty in the early sun, I decided to walk back to it and sit on a bench for a little while in the sun. And there she was! Ironically the heron picked the coldest day we've had in March to reappear. There was a skim of ice on puddles throughout the park - and there were a lot of big puddles because of all the rain we've had. She stood in place almost directly across from the bench I sat on - slowly swiveling her elegant head almost 180 degrees as she kept an eye on things. Her yellow beak stood out, long and sharp. She seems much bigger than last fall. But I have to believe it is the same heron. We sat and watched her a while.

A pair of mallards in the pond near us became nervous about Jessie - not knowing that I would have to pick her up and throw her bodily into the pond for her to get near them, given her Labrador Recliner attitude about water - and swam slowly away. I heard a bird calling nearby and, based on the "Birding by Ear" CD I've been listening to, thought "that's a red winged blackbird". And sure enough, I saw a black bird perched at the top bare branches of a small rounded tree nearby. Suddenly it flew across the pond, flashing the red on its wings.

Then the heron began walking slowing around the pond's edge. When she walks, her long neck stretches out to lead her, her head bobs ever so slightly, calling to mind a large green elegant chicken. Her movement must have caught Jessie's eye because Jessie sat down and stared across the pond, seeming to follow the heron's movement around the pond. We watched until she "disappeared" behind a tangled bramble of bare branches in a thicket of small trees and bushes directly across from us. It was chilly but sunny, birds called out from every side of us, pairs of ducks swam slowly and quietly in the pond, which glowed silver in the early sun. A pair of Canada geese sat in the greening grass across the pond, a few yards from the bramble that hid the heron. Finally I decided I could leave. It was a perfect moment. I cried as we walked back to the car because I felt so full of hope and joy.

Peace.