At Long Last, Millbrook's Elusive Blue Heron!

YES!!!!! Finally! At long, long last, I've managed to capture and post a photo of the elusive great blue heron! I've been chasing it up and down Millbrook Marsh and along Spring Creek for at least the past two years. (See my Blip stories that mention the blue heron: here, here, and here.) It's been going on long enough that it started to take on the feeling of a quest. And on this morning, I hit pay dirt!

We've had a lot of rain lately. Torrents of it, actually, on Thursday night. And I was curious to see if the marsh was flooded, so that's where I stopped on Friday morning. With my camera in my hands, and turned on and ready, I was walking very, very quietly along the boardwalk. As I reached the little wooden bridge over Thompson Run, I looked to my left and there stood the heron, fishing for its breakfast!

One of my personal rules of thumb for photographing wildlife is to take the first shot before taking even one more step. So I did that, and then I zoomed in a bit for this one. Of course by the third shot, the heron was airborne - FWOOP! FWOOP! FWOOP! - and the two shots I got after that were just blurry pictures of a disappearing bird. I prayed that of the few shots I got, at least one of them would be decent enough to post here as proof.

And then I continued down the boardwalk to see the rest of the sights that Millbrook had to offer. Yellow leaves are starting to fall on the boardwalk. It's been a cooler and wetter summer than usual, and I suspect that we may have an early fall. Autumn color-seekers, take note.

The morning delights were many: bumblebees napping beneath Queen Anne's lace, spider webs damp with dew, bright red berries, mallards. The water was indeed running high and muddy, but it wasn't at flood stage yet. The boardwalk itself is just lovely, all sweeping lines and angles. I could content myself just taking endless photographs of it. (And I do.)

I finally thought I should wrap up my visit and get going, so I started putting my camera back in its bag as I approached the end of the boardwalk. Well, that was a mistake. The next thing I saw was a hawk, RIGHT in front of me! If I'd have had my camera out, I'd have had a wonderful shot. But no. The hawk landed on a tree and then immediately flew away. I took off following it, but lost sight of it as it rounded a stand of trees.

Just in case, I made one last trip back down the boardwalk, checking the tree tops for the hawk. No dice, but I got several bonus views of birds I wouldn't have seen otherwise: a bright-colored oriole, a purple finch. So thank you, hawk. The next time, I will have my camera ready.

And then, Millbrook's final morning gifts to me were butterflies. The first was a male monarch who posed and posed for me. As I left the path to chase him with my camera, I almost stepped on a snake: a stripey garter. With a wiggle and a flip, the snake was gone - no time for pictures - the snake had an agenda to keep. The monarch led me on a merry chase through the teasel, and I took more than 60 photos of it. It was the best and closest look at a monarch I've had so far this summer.

As I finally turned and left the teasel field, I spotted one last butterfly, a black one, probably a spicebush swallowtail. And even it posed for me, on a stand of pink-purple thistle. Only later, in the pictures, did I notice a fine detail: orange upside-down hearts on its wings, a proboscis dipped deeply into the bright bloom. *happy sigh* Sometimes, life is just . . . good.

Thank you, Millbrook, for these many morning gifts. And thank you, blue heron, my elusive friend, my wish that was finally granted. Maybe one of these days we will meet again. I will look forward to it.

Only a top-caliber, fist-pumping, stadium-thumping anthem of rock and roll triumph would be suitable for this moment, so here is one of my very favorites: Queen, We Are the Champions.