Thursday, November 9, 2017 No Great Grays but a surprise instead

Seward, Alaska

Reports of possible GREAT GRAY OWLS hooting in Forest Acres for the past few nights finally lured me out last night to listen. I drove around the quiet neighborhood for about 45 minutes at a suspiciously slow speed with the windows open, the chilly wind whistling through the car. After a concerned neighbor walked up to my parked car to ask what I was doing, (Oh, yes. Owling. Ah hmm, very interesting. Hot spot. Nutcase but harmless) I decided this was not my night.

On my way home, I stopped to check the north end of the Lagoon for Swan silhouettes in the dark, backlit by the bright lights of the businesses across the way. To my amazement, I instead saw a solitary, long-legged, long-necked, long-billed bird standing motionless in the salmon stream. A GREAT BLUE HERON! It’s always such a surprise to find one of these elusive, secretive birds. I watched as it almost imperceptibly shifted into the shadowy blackness and disappeared.

Feeling richly rewarded despite my failure to hear the Great Grays, I drove home. I’ll try again when the wind blows itself away.

Happy Birding!
Carol Griswold

Seward Sporadic Bird Report Reporter


No comments:

Post a Comment