Herons and Turtles

Back in June I saw these two animal types in the same neighborhood. A Great Blue Heron is foraging along the shore, and a group of turtles (some are Eastern Painted Turtles, though I'm getting more of a Northern Red-bellied Cooter vibe from a couple of them) basking a short distance offshore.

It's fairly common to see herons and turtles around one another. Although I'm told that Great Blue Herons will eat just about any animal they can swallow, I suspect that once a turtle reaches a certain size, both they and the herons know that the heron won't be able to swallow them shell-and-all. This is probably the reason the turtles tolerated the presence of the heron at a distance where they'd almost certainly have dived into the water if I were there instead of the heron.

The turtles would be more at risk from a Bald Eagle. Eagles have the beak and talons to get around the shell problem by tearing the turtle apart. And I don't know why a Red-tailed Hawk couldn't do the same, though if the Red-tail wanted to fly off with the turtle to eat, it would need to pick a smaller turtle than one a Bald Eagle could carry.

I suspect it's important to turtles to understand a little ornithology to know what birds they need to fear.

June 10, 2021 at Duke Farms
Photo 136370537, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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