Birders
Related: About this forumIsn't this a Great Blue Heron? Why did he show up today at
the duck pond with the Canadian Geese in the middle of Illinois?
Wingus Dingus
(8,054 posts)a good fishing hole. Maybe he's going to a favorite breeding area.
soothsayer
(38,601 posts)Theyre so cool, look just like pterodactyls when theyre flying at you.
Wingus Dingus
(8,054 posts)we see them flying overhead from time to time, HUGE, with their legs trailing behind them--yep, like pterodactyls.
Atticus
(15,124 posts)fish these guys can get down! I once watched in amazement as one threw back his head and gulped down a pound and a half bass.
Ocelot II
(115,735 posts)Almost in the same league as a superb owl.
And as great as this blue heron is, there's no reason he shouldn't be in Illinois; they're all over, wherever there's water and fish, or frogs.
carpetbagger
(4,391 posts)If I remember right, they are year round in Southern Illinois and Summer residents in the upper Midwest.
Jilly_in_VA
(9,983 posts)I used to watch them on the upper reaches of Cherokee Lake back in my home health days in Tennessee. I had one patient who lived on an arm of the lake and one afternoon she and I spent a pleasant 20 minutes or so watching one about 30 feet from us.