Green Heron at Hammond Pond

House Sparrow

 It was slow at Hammond Pond yesterday. Granted my noon time stop at the pond following errands probably wasn't the greatest time; I'm sure if I had ventured into the woods earlier in the morning there would have been more birds. The most numerous birds present were house sparrows and Canadian geese. Though I did catch the lively song of a house finch and a chorus of calling blue jays. And of course there were some robins and grackles present as well. The rowdy red-winged blackbirds livened up the pond as the males jockey for territory. I was surprised that a single mallard was the only duck accounted for. The highlight though was a green heron on a mudflat on the far side of the pond. While the heron was too far away for a half-way decent picture, I think you can still kinda tell it is a green heron. The oddest thing though is that the heron appeared to have sat down! At least I couldn't see her legs. This made me wonder if she could have been on a nest, but this sighting is quite early for green herons around Boston (and the earliest at Hammond Pond), so I doubt they've stated breeding already. Then I read at All About Birds that they build their nests in trees, so I have no idea what this heron was doing. I did however learn a really cool fact while looking up their nesting habits, apparently green herons are one of the few birds that uses tools. They apparently drop bait in the water, such as bread, bugs, or feathers, and then they catch fish as the swim up to investigate!

Green Heron

P.S. As an aside, I just learned that a team from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology just broke the North American record for most birds seen in a single day with 294 species. I haven't seen that many in my lifetime! To read more and see some pictures you can read an article here.