Monday, September 15, 2008

Punk heron

I'm embarassed that the last time I shared a photo of an adult Yellow-crowned night heron, it was a badly digiscoped monstrosity. Lets put that right:


YCNH2


This one was very unhappy about my presence. It was feasting on something (perhaps fiddler crabs?) that was out in abundance in the post Hanna/Ike rain puddles by the salt pond. It would fly 10 yards or so as I walked towards it (I was trying to get past it to the pond) and then as I walked on fly 10 yards more. He eventually alighted on this pile of trash for a nice shot.

YCNH

4 comments:

Hugh Griffith said...

It's a great shot. I photographed this species in Bermuda many times, and most of the pictures are, at best, comparable to your "digiscoped monstrosity." By the way, Yellow-crowns were extirpated in Bermuda, and re-introduced in the late 1970s, a race from Florida, part of the rewilding (if I'm using the term correctly) of Nonsuch Island. It's a different race, however, so technically the indigenous heron is extinct.

tai haku said...

That's really interesting Hugh - what caused the extirpation?

Hugh Griffith said...

I'm not sure it is known why they disappeared. I believe it was relatively soon after colonization.

(See the Wikipedia page for Bermuda Night Heron). I'm pretty sure that's the species I'm referring to.

tai haku said...

lookin at the extinction timing suggested it seems to illustrate what Paul Martin calls deadly sycopation so presumably the extinction was colonisation related in some way.