I've been walking with 5th graders through North Easton for many days, and doing a lot of fishing as well. Almost daily I've been seeing Great Blue Herons flying over the walkers or stalking the shallows of local ponds. I haven't seen so many Great Blues since the year they drained Old and New Pond to fix the dams leaving the fish high and dry. Standing up to four and a half feet tall and weighing four to eight pounds, the Great Blue Heron is one of our largest birds. It is common and widespread with subspecies all over the world, but it nests in colonies that are much more limited in distribution. The presence of so many birds in town lends credence to the report that there is a nesting colony in a secluded area of North Easton.
The Great Blue is a stealth hunter walking slowly in shallow water looking for fish and frogs. It's coloration makes for good camouflage along the shady edges of streams, and the bird can be so intent on its fishing that one can accidentally get very close to it. If you haven't been paying attention, this can be a very startling experience since this heavy bird has a hard time getting airborne on wings that may stretch six feet across.
I remember being in the Bridgewater Public Library researching reports of Bigfoot in the Hockomock Swamp. Among the other mythical denizens of the swamp are the less famous Mothmen. As I was looking at a story about them, another patron leaned over and excitedly told me about a Mothman sighting made by his mother and father-in-law. "It was twilight, and they were driving down a road in the Hockomock in West Bridgewater when a tall thin man flew right over the hood of the car." I listened politely while all the time thinking to myself it's city folk who have never seen a Great Blue struggling to get airborne.
The pond at Stonehill has hosted a nest of Green Herons for many years. Green Herons are much smaller than Great Blues and often keep their neck pulled in. I've seen this species both at Stonehill and at Pine Oaks Golf Course. They are a much gaudier bird than the Great Blue as you can see from this picture taken from Wikipedia:
The ponds of Easton add to the avian diversity of the town and looking for herons is a lot easier than hunting for tiny sandpipers and plovers.
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