Belmont, North Carolina 8.10.93: Blue Herons and Cane Thickets

A few days ago, Steve and I walked down to try to catch a glimpse of the blue heron, which seems to have returned from it summering place. Steve had seen it on its stick in the slough off South Fork river, which (the slough) people call a lake. Hence the name of our community, Lakewood.

It wasn’t on the stick where it often perches, so we went across the bridge to look on the other side, where a number of sandhill cranes live among the cattails and other vegetation on what’s the marshier side of the bridge.

As we walked down to the cane thicket, we heard an ark-ark—loud—that we’d never heard before. Steve then said he saw the heron fly off to the top of a tree; it was he (she) who had made the noise. It must nest (with young?) on that side, and sit on the other to fish during the daytime.