northeast-flora-and-fauna

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...

Here's a Green Heron I met last month. Unlike the Great Blue Heron that you can find all year round here in New Jersey, the Green Heron wants no part of our winters. Georgia is about as far north as they'll stay during the cold weather months. They're probably not a early sign of spring; they're probably a sign that spring is well established. The Great Blue Heron is usually considered a bird that'll eat any animal it can catch and swallow; the Green Heron sounds similar, but their smaller size means that they can't eat some of what's on the Great Blue's menu. They're not above eating insects if they can catch them. In a pose like this (which is a common pose), you might think that the body shape is wrong for heron. But while they scrunch their necks like this frequently, the Green Heron can also extend their necks into the long/thin ones that we associate with herons. May 10, 2021 at the Raritan River Greenway Photo 128959592, (c) jpviolette, some...