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eSA (Extended Stay America) Room 210 (4)
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The Heron
Last March or so, I had noticed during our walks that there are herons flying about busily with branches in their beaks. Their size is roughly about 4 feet with the entire wingspan. They were flying to a nesting location of about 25 meter high branch of a broadleaf tree.
Several days had passed and I looked up and saw that the heron had made a handsome nest. I believed they had already laid their eggs and was anticipating for them to hatch soon while walking beneath the tree.
Few months later, I was able to hear the babies chirping away loudly and was happy to hear it. This was something that the Saratoga Retirement Community very rarely can see. The apartment complex is near (about 15 miles) from a mountain range, while the motel that I am currently staying is about a mile off from the San Francisco Bay.
The herons can easily catch fishes to eat and also catch fishes for their young.
Herons, when I was evacuating during the Korean War, I had seen them along with egrets. Egrets and Herons are different in color but is the same breed.
The one characteristic about them is their tall (about 90cm?) stature. Which is why they are very well visible even if they sit far away in the grass? When I took a closer look at the heron, they have a gray back, white belly and head. There is a black stripe running from the eye to the head which comes off to a ribbon like look. There are also black stripes on the neck. The odd thing is the neck has a pair of ribbon like looking hair that drops down far. Their necks and feet are very long.
Upon further research, I had found out that despite being that big, they only weigh 1.3kilogram.
While walking around the tree that the herons had nested upon, there was one particular mother bird that was crying loudly.
Looking straight up to the top of the branches, the other herons blend in with the tree however; several egrets have sat down as well. Maybe the smaller birds have come to build nesting ground here or steal the nests? Regardless, the calling sound of the herons was so loud that it made my ears hurt. It was probably the mother’s intuition to protect its young.
When the mother had come back with food, the babies (unknown how many hatchlings were there) would cry loudly and eat from the mother’s beak. Despite the road near the tree being covered in the bird’s droppings to make it look like it’s painted in white however, it didn’t smell bad at all.
July 13th
The herons were crying so loudly, I stopped my walking and looked up to the nests (it made my neck hurt from looking up so high) I noticed the mother bird was flapping her wings and so were the babies! Finally after 4 months, the babies are ready to depart from the nest!
As expected, the next day it was very quiet and the following days were also silent and the mother birds were no longer there.
The next day, as if they were returning for a short time, I noticed the mother bird had flown around the nest once and another heron standing alone in a stream nearby. After that, the daily visiting the mother did to feed her young and the graceful flights it was doing was visible no more.
2 more months, and I will re-enter the apartment as the repairs will finish soon. I was thinking of returning here one day once again to see the herons to observe them once again in near future.
(July 23rd 2018)
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Why? 
eSA (Extended Stay America) Room 210 (4)