#greatblueharon

[sowisek]

DAY 13 THE GREAT BLUE HARON I were study nie beak for so looong to make at en angle and nice looking... that was a very good fight. #birds #greatblueharon #bigbird #sketchbook #sketching #sketcheveryday #sketching #sketches #everydayskketch #drawingeveryday #Sowisek #Sowisekart #Sowisek_art https://www.instagram.com/sowisek_art/p/CYE1QeXK3-E/?utm_medium=tumblr

[aka-xn]

Look! A beaver! I know what you’re thinking; that’s a Great Blue Heron, not a #beaver. But in reality, when you see Blue Herons in #Massachusetts, you see #beavers. The #greatblueharon was in a lot of trouble a few decades back. One of the largest of #NewEngland birds, they stand up to 4 feet tall (a freaking Yankee #ostrich!) and their wingspan can be even a little bigger than that! These dignified marsh divas will fly literally dozens of miles a day for a snack. I was lucky enough to catch this one as it took off, making it really easy to see the slate blue color across it’s wings for which it gets its name. But none of that matters to dumb, dumb, cruel humans, who typically pay no attention to the balance of ecosystems. We shamefully and brutally decimated their habitats for houses. In our foolish obsession for real estate, we caused a lot of harm for beavers. Throughout the Commonwealth, beaver populations were dropping. Beavers create bogs and marshes and #wetlands and swamps; apparently these don’t fair well with #gentrifiers. Rather than understand how central the beaver is to the well being of our future, we filled in their habitats and trapped the rest. No beavers, no wetlands. No wetlands, no great blue herons. The pressure got so bad that, ironically, the #heron was threatened more than the beaver! In a twist of proof that shows how fragile and complex ecosystems are, we say the loss of a great native species because we greedily decimated their food sources; hunting grounds created by #beaverdams. Nowadays, when you’re in Massachusetts, creeping around boulders and breakwaters the way I do, and you see a great blue heron lurking in the shallows, picking off shoals and being snobby and proprietous towards the cackling gulls and pissy, divebombing pips, know that you’re seeing a human apology. By making way for beaver, we’ve helped rebound the heron. So, yeah: look! It’s a beaver! ▫️ #nature #ecosystem #wetland #birds #audobon #preservation #conservation #akaXN #TheRealXN (at Breakwater) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFACuCnDawi/?igshid=17x1scchfcsjl

[familyadventuresinnewyorkstate]

We see a lot of Great Blue Herons at this park. https://familyadventuresinnewyorkstate.com/hiking/finger-lakes-region-parks/north-ponds-park-webster-new-york/. #parksinnewyork #websterny #northpondspark #greatblueharon #waterfowl #walking #walkingwithdogs #monroecountyparks #friendsofwebstertrails #getoutside #fishing #running #walkinginnewyorkcity #picnic #weekend #familyreunion #birdwatching #websterny #familyadventures #familyadventuresinnewyork #familyadventuresinnewyorkstate (at North Ponds Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBwdQnSJiyB/?igshid=1wyp56zkm35w1