I didn’t edit the original text, but a few people corrected me (thank you!) that this is a crane.
Another bird has been visiting our pond – a heron! We’ve named her Sharon*.
That’s a horrible photo of Sharon (she’s by the red arrow). She flies away every time we open the door to go outside, so we don’t have a decent photo of her yet. Here’s a better photo I took of a different heron on the same day (that is NOT our pond, ha ha):
I wasn’t sure if Sharon was a heron or a crane, and the internets told me to look at her flying to tell – herons bend their neck in to an s-shape when they fly, and cranes keep it straight. I took a (horrible) photo of her flying away, and her neck was an s-shape! Heron it is! (updated below – commenters who know more than me say it’s a crane. I am not so great at identifying birds. Also, the first site I visited had conflicting information from another, so, yeah. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.)
I saw herons all the time when we lived in our townhome. I think the logo for our neighborhood there had a heron on it! I’d often see three of them together, when running, and it became this thing to take a picture of them and send it to my mom and snister. So my mom started called them my cheerleaders, Larry, Moe and Curly. Heh.
Round Lake Herons
I was really excited then, when I realized three herons hang out around my running route at the new (can I still call it that?) house too! So I take photos and send them to mom and Snistina. It’s probably only amusing to me at this point, but whatevs.
Zion Herons
And then there is this guy. He’s big enough I think he deserves a name.
WHY ARE THE FLIES SO BIG OUT HERE WTF!!!!
Updated to add: Steven was able to get a photo of Sharon this morning on his DSLR!
Also updated: apparently the internets lead me wrong and a few commenters are saying these are cranes. Oops! We’ll still call her Sharon. Ha.
*No idea if she is male or female.
That’s so cool….your land is gonna be some sort of wildlife sanctuary soon 🙂 must be a good place to hang out!
I hope they keep hanging out! I love seeing them!
Oh my gosh!! That’s so awesome! I am, unsurprisingly, so jealous. There’s a farm by my mom and dad’s house, and sometimes we’d see herons (or cranes…? idk. One of the big, tall birds. Haha.) out in the fields. It was always very exciting! Definitely not something I see all that often/ever in the city, aside from the one I saw by the Chicago History Museum right around this time last year. The fly, on the other hand – you can keep him all to yourself. That looks like a horse fly to me, and the bites from those suckers HURT. Little black biting flies hurt when they bite, but it’s nothing compared to a horse fly bite. I got one when I was a kid and it was enough to scar me for life! (Emotionally, that is. Not physically. Haha.)
Apparently I can’t tell which are herons and cranes too, cause a few people have said they are cranes. Oops!
I get bit by those A LOT now. It’s horrible!!! Why do flies that big exist?!?!?!! I would not be surprised if they did leave real scars, ha.
That’s cool that you have so many herons hanging around! That’s a great photo of Larry, Curly and Mo 🙂
It was so fun to watch them dance! 🙂
The three birds in your picture in the field are Sandhill Cranes. We have a Mom, Dad and baby around our house all the time. I like be seeing all of the beautiful birds in our county.
Cool 🙂 Thanks for the correction.
I love all the wildlife near you 🙂
The Zion herons and RoundLake herons above are actually sand hill cranes. They lived around my house in Florida. I know them well because I got too close to their babies when I was 7 or 8 and got chased by them around my house. I thought that would be the end of me- pecked to death by those Dino-birds. That fly is humongous! Holy crap!
LOL! ALWAYS LEAVE THE BABIES ALONE! I will have to put a note in the post that I was wrong about it being a heron. I am horrible at identifying birds!
So that’s what those things are! We have two of the RL herons in our neighborhood and I had no idea what they were. They’re so lanky and SO LOUD when they’re squaking. Heidi loves chasing them (obviously no babies there, since they usually just retreat to the pond across the street).
I’m not sure I’ve ever actually heard them!!!!
You would know if you had! It’s a very distinct squawk.
oh, i had no idea that was how you could tell the difference between herons and cranes! The more you know ::rainbow/star:: 🙂
And I got it all wrong, so don’t trust what you read here, lol!
It’s so cool getting all the updates on your local wildlife! Your pictures look like they are from such a lush green forest. You are very lucky to have that beauty literally in your own backyard!!! LOL at the name Sharon the Heron – very cute. =) Yikes at that massive fly, it looks like it is on steroids!!!
Thank you! I feel very lucky to see this every day!
I think he WAS!!! I smashed him with a shoe and he came back to life a few minutes later!!!
Beautiful! I guess I am challenged, I am having a time telling the difference between a Crane and a Heron, but they are fun to watch!
I can’t tell either, I need to read my bird books. I marked the pages during break to read tonight, lol!
Well I was going to ask if those birds were actually sand hill cranes but I see you already have a lot of wildlife experts reading here 🙂 Now I am really wondering what a heron looks like! I thought I saw a blue heron but maybe it was not what I thought!
I am super confused by it now! Steven and I did more reading about it last night, and even looked at our bird books and, well, it’s just hard for us to tell them apart! Especially since we can’t see Sharon very well! She is most likely a crane, though!
Whatever kind of bird Sharon is, she’s certainly beautiful and I love that last picture. We have a blue heron that hangs around our neighborhood sometimes – mostly to steal the fish in our neighbor’s pond – and it’s amazing to see him in flight. He perches on the highest tree in our yard to scope out the fish. Smart bird!
It’s so nice you have so much wildlife in your yard – except for those nasty flies, of course.
Thanks! I love seeing her! I hope she keeps visiting!
Man! It would be so cool to see your heron stealing fish! I should stock the pond for Sharon. Ha!!!
Ugh. When I got home from teaching last night one of those things was attacking me when I tried to walk to the door!!!!!
Our neighborhood has Heron in the name too. Even though our street name has Turtle in it! Someone finally asked me if we have any turtles around here (which I never thought of), and I have yet to see one.
I’ve seen blue herons flying over some of the nearby forest preserves. That was the kind Terry was familiar with (meanwhile, I had never seen a heron before moving up here).
Sharon the some-kind-of-bird is pretty 🙂
What is the name of your neighborhood? Ours was Valley Lakes… and our little part was called Nature’s Cove. Even their favicon is some kind of bird: http://valleylakes.org/ And I see they had something called Heron Bay SO WTF PEOPLE MAYBE THOSE ARE HERONS!!!
You know, we used to get those HUGE snapping turtles by our house, so I would not be surprised if you ever see some by your marsh!
The second picture of Sharon makes her look like a Great Blue Heron, but I can’t tell from subsequent photos. (My mom has a tattoo of a Great Blue Heron, so I’m pretty familiar with them, but then again, it’s a small photo!) The photo of Larry, Moe, and Curly makes me think they are Sandhill Cranes because of the red spot on their heads. I was reading about the Mothman once in WV, and apparently, some people surmise that it was actually just a big crane instead of a cryptid.
I think they might be too different birds too, the more I look at them. The one I saw at the old house were definitely Sandhill Cranes but I am still thinking the one that comes here might be a heron. You should come back to check it out for me! 🙂