Today I spent a couple of hours at the Theler Wetlands in Mason County,
around mid-afternoon, so it wasn't quite as birdy as it'll be in the early
A.M. This was only my second visit, but I'm expecting/hoping to become a
regular visitor/birder there.

Anyway, what I want to share with you is a gull/Great Blue Heron (GBH)
encounter. I was on the trail that parallels the salt marsh area, heading
back towards my car, when I saw a GBH in flight. At the spot it landed was
a gull, which had a bullhead-sized, rotten-looking looking fish. The gull
took off, fish in beak, heading the direction from which the GBH had come.
The GBH followed in hot pursuit. Gull eventually dropped fish in a muddy
area not too far from a channel which flowed out towards a bay. GBH landed,
gull landed, GBH snatched the fish from the mud and walked over to the water
with it, dunking it a few times. Cleaning/rinsing it??? That's what it
looked like. After rinsing the fish the GBH stood in the water, holding the
fish in its bill. The fish appeared to me to be too big for the GBH to
swallow, although I waited for a while, wondering if the bird would try to
position the fish so as to make a meal of it. Nothing doing. Meanwhile,
the gull (Herring? not sure) had walked up close to the GBH, who walked
towards it and backed the gull off. Eventually the bird dropped the fish
into the water and pecked at it. The gull had taken off and had landed on
the water, near where the fish had been dropped. It swam towards the fish
and GBH. GBH moved towards gull, gull backed off again, and eventually just
paddled away. The GHB guarded its submerged fish, did no more pecking at
it, and eventually walked away from it to fish, without a backwards glance
at gull or fish.

So, what was this, a game of birdy keep-away??? A really interesting little
drama to watch.

Cheers,
Mary

Mary Klein
Bremerton WA
CelloBird at seanet.com