My daughter and I spent the last two days on our semi-annual get away, this time choosing the Chattanooga area for our adventures. We hiked and hiked (and ate and ate!) and spent some time strolling along the Tennessee River. We also encountered a whole host of Great Blue Herons, most of which were hanging out around the base of the Chickamauga Dam in hopes of feasting on some fresh fish.
There were standing Herons…
…and landing Herons…
…and striding Herons…
…and gliding Herons.
But the one thing the Herons all had in common was their quest to snare some food with fins!
As we watched, we saw some come away with a small catch…
…another managed a medium size meal…
…while this fellow clearly bit off more than he could chew!
The above photo was taken by my daughter (Katie) who had charge of the powershot with the extra zoom. And speaking of Katie, it’s only fitting to post her picture as well!
For such large birds, Herons are remarkably graceful,
although on occasion they do display a rather awkward pose!
Our hopes had been to find some Wood Ducks to photograph, but none blessed us with their presence at the river, so we headed over to Booker T Washington State Park to see if we could find any at Chickamauga Lake.
Although we still had no luck spotting any Wood Ducks, we did find a beautiful wharf whose smell of Creosote (a word whose spelling in no way matches the southern Maryland pronunciation I grew up with!) transported me back to childhood days spent at my grandparents house on the Saint Georges river.
Oh, and we found another Heron of course, who landed on the top beam of the wharf to spy on the nearby fishermen.
“Happiness is a Whole Host of Herons” would be a fitting title for this trip , but a better one would be “Happiness is Adventuring with My Girlie.” We always have such fun on our get-aways.
Stay tuned for an upcoming post where I’ll share some of the lovely Tree Swallows we also had the pleasure of encountering. Beautiful birds!
