[obol] Great Blue Heron behavior

[Shawneen Finnegan]

These are some good stories!  I can add a few more Great Blue Heron  
snack items to the list, though not from Oregon.  My roots are  
originally in the San Francisco Bay Area.   As mentioned in an  
earlier post they can catch rails midair.  In Palo Alto I used to  
work within blocks of the famous Baylands, known for Black Rail  
viewing.  It was tough on the small rails. Great Egrets and Great  
Blues were particularly adept at picking off the small rails in  
flight as they flew from flooded areas to higher ground.  Viewers  
were able to get the herons to drop the rails at times by clapping or  
making other startling noises.

Later when I lived in Santa Barbara the local Great Blues would eat  
the ground squirrels that had lived along the edge of the marshes.   
They probably do this in a lot of places, but that is where I saw  
it.  They would stab them with their bills  and then devour them.   
Very gory.

Sometimes Great Blues have an appetite that is too big for their own  
good.  I remember seeing photos of a dead Great Blue Heron taken, as  
I recall, at the south end of San Francisco Bay.  It had tried to  
swallow an eel that was so large it lodged in its throat half way  
down and choked to death.

Shawneen Finnegan
Portland, Oregon