Last week, after my daily meditation, I noticed a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) at the edge of the pond behind the house. It was motionless, the way they are when they hunt. A Nutria (Myocastor coypus) surfaced nearby, swam toward the bank, and settled in to munch on the grass. The heron paid it no attention and kept staring into the water.
Then, instead of striking at something, it made a short hop with a partial wing spread. Nothing unusual — I have seen that before. But then came another hop, and another. I got up and pointed my camera at it.
What I thought was a retracted leg turned out to be something else. The left foot was missing. Questions flooded my mind. Was it born that way? Did it lose the foot in an accident? Was it attacked by another animal? What preys on a heron this size?
That afternoon, as I sat down to write this post, I remembered another heron at this same pond, back on the Fourth of July. What caught my eye that day was that it was not standing. It was down in the water among the fallen branches, head up, body low, trying over and over to move. Something below the surface held its left leg and would not let go. A thin black section of that leg showed above the waterline.
The bird was already in distress, and I did not want to make things worse. I stayed back and used a long stick, working it slowly under the water where the leg disappeared, hoping to free whatever was holding it down. After two or three movements of the stick, the heron pulled itself loose and limped away. I never saw what had been holding it.
Could it be the same bird? Could that afternoon be when it lost its foot? I have no way to know. But after looking into it, I learned there are only a few likely answers, and being born this way is not one of them. A missing foot in a heron is almost always the result of an injury the bird sustained.
The best explanation is discarded fishing line. Monofilament is the most common cause of foot loss in wading birds. A loop tightens around the leg, circulation stops, the tissue below it dies and turns black, and the foot is eventually lost. A line snagged on a submerged branch would also explain a bird anchored in place and unable to rise. That thin black section of leg I saw in July is what keeps bringing me back to this.
People fish this pond all the time, including the very stretch of bank where I found the heron on the Fourth of July. I have no reason to think anyone is careless, and I would not want to suggest otherwise. Accidents happen. Hooks snag on branches, line breaks, and what is left behind sinks out of sight. Monofilament takes hundreds of years to break down, so it stays where it lands. This is only my speculation about this particular bird, but it is the kind of speculation the evidence keeps supporting.
The other possibility was in the pond that same month. We have Common Snapping Turtles (Chelydra serpentina) here — I photographed two of them later in July. A snapping turtle is strong enough to hold a bird down, and they are known to take adult waterbirds.
As for predators, an adult Great Blue Heron has almost none. Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) will take them at any age, and Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus) occasionally do. Crows, ravens, vultures, and raccoons take the eggs and nestlings. None of that explains this bird.
So I am left with possibilities and no answer. I did the only thing I could: I kept watching, and I kept photographing. Whatever happened to it, the heron is still here, still hunting, still getting where it needs to go on one foot. Just another morning in the backyard, with nature teaching me a lesson in perseverance.
That is the story behind the shots. For more like this, enjoy these related stories: Bird of the Week, Great Blue Heron, Teravista, Texas, and Wildlife. Until the next shoot, keep chasing the light and the wonders it reveals.
- Posted for I.J. Khanewala’s Birds of the Week Invitation CLXXXVII.
Sources:
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds — Great Blue Heron, Life History — https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Blue_Heron/lifehistory
- National Audubon Society — This Common Form of Plastic Pollution Is a Menace to Birds — https://www.audubon.org/news/this-common-form-plastic-pollution-menace-birds
- U.S. Geological Survey — Common Snapping Turtle Preys on an Adult Western Grebe — https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70037053
- USDA APHIS — Nutria (Myocastor coypus), an Invasive Rodent — https://www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/fsc-nutria-invasive-rodent.pdf
- Wikipedia — Great Blue Heron (predators of adults, eggs, and nestlings) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_blue_heron
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heavenlyraindrops
Gorgeous pics!
Egidio Leitao
Thanks for the compliment, Sue. I appreciated that.
Pamela Zmija Photography
Awesome photos! Beautiful
Egidio Leitao
Thanks a million for your compliment, Pam.
Arati
Lovely story. Thank you for sharing it and the photos
Egidio Leitao
Thanks for stopping by and commenting on the post and photos.
Anita
What a story, Egídio. It’s sad to see what happened to the heron, but also remarkable to see it carrying on despite its injury. Your photos tell the story beautifully.
Egidio Leitao
It’s a story of resilience. Thanks for your comment, Anita.
marina
So beautiful!
Egidio Leitao
Thank you, Marina. I’m glad you liked the post.
shoestringdiary
Thanks for sharing this. That heron goes to show that impairments in life won’t be able to keep us down if we don’t allow them to.
Egidio Leitao
Leo, that is a great lesson to take away from this. Thanks for writing.
Sam.Rappen
That’s certainly a cautionary tale for the fisher folk among us. Hope he manages to make it through a long life.
Egidio Leitao
Sam, I hope that the heron lives a long life, too. I recently saw a video of another heron being stuck in monofilament in Brazil. Some boaters helped to untangle it from the fishing lines. Thanks for writing.
Tra Italia e Finlandia
Che storia…povero animale.
Egidio Leitao
È incredibile vedere come abbia imparato a vivere senza un piede. Grazie per aver scritto.
margaret21
What a story. Well done for helping that heron a while back. Yes, I expect you’ll continue to wonder whether you saw the same one again only the other day. Whether it is or not, it’s clearly a resourceful bird!
Egidio Leitao
Margaret, yes, it is a resourceful bird. It learned to live without a foot. Thanks for your feedback.
niasunset
How beautiful, this is great shot. Thank You, Love, nia
Egidio Leitao
Thanks, Nia. I’m not sure which photo you liked. Maybe you only saw the header photo. Thanks for writing.
niasunset
You are welcome dear Egidio, No, I have seen all of Them, Such a beautiful all of Them. Great Shots. I love Herons and their flights… When I was living at the sea side for a while I watched Them and made me so excited… Thank You again, have a nice day, Love, nia
Egidio Leitao
Thanks, Nia. It’s wonderful to observe them.
solaner
what a rare occurence to see a heron/egret swimming.
Egidio Leitao
André, the heron was stuck. It was trying to release itself, but it only got free after I helped it. Thanks for the comment.
I. J. Khanewala
These are the thoughtless ways in which our activity impacts the world. No wonder most bird populations are dwindling. And the few that manage to adapt are pests because their predator populations are falling
Egidio Leitao
That reinforced my take of the human negative impact in nature. I agree with your take, too. Thank you very much for the comment.
Steve Schwartzman
What a dramatic story. Seems you’ll never know for sure what happened, but you and your photographs became part of it.
Egidio Leitao
Thanks for this wonderful feedback. It was good to see what some options are for what might have occurred, but I’ll never know.
pamperrault21
Wonderful! Thanks, Egidio! pp
Egidio Leitao
Thanks for your note, Pam.
Egidio Leitao
Thanks for writing, Pam.