Seeking, searching the blue heron gazes out over the water. Illusive fish have swum out of the shallows onto deeper holes in the river.
A glint of sunlight, a shadow flickers in the grasses just beyond the shore. Blue heron snatches the slithering garter snake. The snake twists and arches. Without releasing his prized dinner, heron flies to a rock in the middle of the stream, shakes his bill, crushing the snake’s spine and swallows the swallows the gray reptile.
Blue heron flaps high into a cottonwood, perches on the edge of the nest and regurgitates pulverized reptile into the waiting mouths of his young while his mate soars in search of her meal.
Returning to the stillness a solitary sentinel, the blue heron stares out at the river satisfied.
Great Blue Herons create a bridge between the wilds and suburbia.
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