Breakfast at the Lake

may my heart always be open to little 
birds who are the secret of living
whatever they sing is better than to know…

ee cummings
53
100 Selected Poems

Great blue heron with broken leg perched on boulder.

Only moments before the top photo in this post was taken, the great blue heron was engaged in a fierce aerial skirmish with a younger heron.

A couple of weeks ago, I introduced a great blue heron with a markedly broken leg (click on Wordlessly Watching to see that post). Two years had gone by since the photo in that earlier post, and she had settled into a morning routine, as had I. Some days our routines dovetailed.

The heron usually made a morning circuit of the southern cove, flying south along the eastern shoreline before settling on a fishing location for the morning.

Great blue heron with broken leg chasing off an interloper.

Occasionally, she would encounter an interloper. When that happened, territorial displays ensued, and if the errant heron failed to take the hint, the chase was on.

And what a chase it was that day. Two huge birds flying mere feet apart, huge wings pumping, the younger bird straining for altitude.

I have no doubt that the heron with the broken leg could have overtaken the youngster mid-air, but she seemed content to simply touch down on the large boulders once it was clear that the interloper was headed elsewhere. She wasn’t out for blood; she was out for solitude. Any morning when a heron wins its skirmish and achieves solitude is a good morning for heron.

And solitude is what I crave in the mornings, too.

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Thanks to Michelle W. and WordPress for the Weekly Photo Challenge: Good Morning. WordPress asked us about what makes a good morning. After waking, I head to the lake, picking up coffee on the way there. I like to have a picnic breakfast overlooking the water and the dock before any people are about, just the morning mist, ducks, cormorants, geese, and me. And the herons.

Thanks to Michelle W. also for the Daily Prompt: Unplugged. Today, we were asked how we know when it’s time to get unplugged. Unplugged. No electronics. Smartphone, off. IPad, off. Mobile broadband, also off. Unfortunately, I’ve had to conduct recording sessions from deep within the cove to accommodate people’s schedules on more occasions than is right, and so my go-bag always included those toys. Days like those, it’s a no-brainier about knowing when to be unplugged.

And thanks also to Michelle for the Weekly Pet Challenge Roundup nudge. Michelle hosts a fun challenge where people post photos of pets or other animals. I think a great blue heron has too much dignity to allow itself to be called a “pet,” but I am smitten by this heron just the same.

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(This took place September 5, 2011)

© 2013 Babsje. (https://babsjeheron.wordpress.com)