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Re: Great Blue Heron Foraging Question

kernscot
 

I have seen G-b Herons catching and swallowing field voles and mice.

Nancy

From: hmbirds@groups.io <hmbirds@groups.io> on behalf of scottjstoner via groups.io <ScottJStoner@...>
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2021 3:04 PM
To: bdudek34 <bdudek2@...>; hmbirds@groups.io <hmbirds@groups.io>
Subject: Re: [hmbirds] Great Blue Heron Foraging Question
 
Bruce (et al.) ,  while I don't have specific observations to add on Great Blue Heron, Denise and I have seen Green Heron foraging for insects in a dry field at Five Rivers EEC. Years ago, I also observed egrets eating exhausted songbirds from a spring migration fallout inside Fort Jefferson on the Dry Tortugas! -Scott Stoner



Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone


-------- Original message --------
From: bdudek34 <bdudek2@...>
Date: 9/28/21 11:13 (GMT-05:00)
To: hmbirds@groups.io
Subject: [hmbirds] Great Blue Heron Foraging Question

Twice in the past week, I have seen a Great Blue Heron foraging in an open field as I drove by. The first time was an abandoned horse pasture and the second was the grassy area off the west end of the E/W runway of the Albany airport.  Neither location had any sort of vernal pool or wetland.  This struck me a so odd that each time I circled back to make sure that I wasn't seeing a Sandhill Crane.  Given the proximity of the two locations, it is possible that it was the same bird.

Are these herons known to forage for insects/rodents, etc in dry fields?  Having never seen this, and not finding any thing written on it in a cursory search, I can't be sure if I've seen something unusual or whether my expectations of only seeing them in wetlands are incorrect.

Can anyone point me to a literature on Great Blue foraging behavior where this may have been studied?

Thanks,
Bruce

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