Green Heron

August 25, 2025. Grimsby, ON. Canada. With a change in the air, a shift towards fall, I thought I should dust off my binoculars and camera and visit a few favourite spots. After a couple of tries I went to where activist naturalists have converted an old sewage settling pond into a vibrant wetland comprising  two large and two small ponds. I anticipated the unexpected having been inspired to post sightings from there previously.  See Virginia Rail and Common Gallinule.

It was a little quiet this morning, perhaps I’d jumped the gun.  The largest pond was almost dry, even so I was happy enough watching a young Green Heron. It was one of three out there but much closer to me than its friends and, as Green Herons do, it stood almost motionless for a long while. I waited, camera-ready for movement, hoping it would start stalking prey or even take wing. It did both in the end and I was content with a few decent shots.

It seemed to be a safe spot to sit quietly, them and me. I found a handful of Killdeer whiling away the time, not exposed where a peregrine or sharp-shinned predator might grab them but pressed up close to an old log or clump of something or other. A Spotted Sandpiper explored the odd patch of higher ground and several Wood Ducks paddled where water depth allowed. It was very late-summer quiet.

I am intrigued by Spotted Sandpipers. We know them here as captivating little shoreline breeders. In spring their breasts are boldly spotted but by late summer those distinctive marks have vanished. Then they look just like their old-world cousins the Common Sandpiper.  Their behaviour is much the same too, same tight fluttery flight and bobbing walk. They are clearly closely related,  Cornel Labs’ Birds of the World sites has this to say about that,  “…it is clear that the sister species of A. macularius (Spotted Sandpiper) is A. hypoleucus, the Common Sandpiper of Eurasia ….. These two species are strikingly similar in general size, structure, and behavior and are ecological replacements on either side of the Atlantic or Pacific oceans.” Just as I thought.