A solitary hunter, ardea horodias

The heron stands

Balancing on one foot

Composed

Swank blue plumes and a dashing crest

A regal bird

Wading in still waters

Beside green pastures

Don Brockmeier’s photo of the Blue Heron he came upon in August inspired my poem.

Blue Heron always appears poised and expectant of a photo to show his beautiful blue feathers and graceful form. In August Blue Heron, may be seen in standing in shallow waters or on a low branch with eyes focused on the water. Herons primarily catch and eat fish, but they are truly omnivorous carnivores eating almost anything that moves and will fit in their gullets: frogs, turtles, snakes, mice, shrews, small muskrats, lizards, crawfish, grasshoppers and dragonflies. They even rob the nests of low land birds, such as blackbirds.

A stately, solitary hunter, ardea herodias stands at least four feet tall from its feet planted in the marsh muck to the end of its long, pointed beak.

Smokey-blue plumes on its crest and back dramatically embellish a spare, sleek body feathered in pewter gray. Bony stilts for legs, with heels that flex and place large, slender feet in dark pools.

The great blue’s wingspan is more than six feet from tip to tip, yet for all this length and breadth, the bird generally weighs only somewhere between five and eight pounds.