My second visit to Johnson Park and the Raritan River. The herons and egrets were plentiful today since the river was low. As I was watching some seagulls and a distant heron, I saw this heron fly into a tree that was full of cormorants. He kicked one off the branch that he favored and just perched for over an hour. I sat below with my tripod and watched him.
Species: Great Blue Heron Location: Johnson Park, Piscataway, New Jersey Lens: EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM
I have no memory of these kinds of sights at Johnson Park, which could be because when I was a kid egrets and herons had not yet evolved, or because kids have crummy memories, or because of DDT pollution.
Were ya really looking for them when you were a kid? I'm sure the ducks and geese were distracting enough
The herons and egrets were everywhere I turned my head (mostly in the middle of the river since it was so low that you could walk across it). I was about ready to get my wet boots and just camp out right in the middle!
No, it was really bad. Geese were much less common then; I don't remember seeing Canada Geese at all when I was pretty small. I just found some numbers ([link]): 6000 Canada Geese in New Jersey in 1975, shortly after the DDT ban, but 124000 in 1990. Red-Tailed Hawks weren't very common, either, although I can remember seeing them.
My first memory of an encounter with blue herons was in the Thousand Islands about 1990.
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