Got an email last week from Urban Naturalist saying he'd seen a green heron hanging out in the same area on the river where the geese and ducks nest. Yesterday having been our last at the Rancho for this year, and tomorrow being 9/11, I was feeling a little low this morning, so I thought I'd take a walk up there to see if I could see this bird. The tide was very high and it's a big area, and Sibley describes green herons as "solitary and somewhat secretive" (don't you love that?) so I figured I didn't have much chance. But -- duh -- herons are shore birds who fish in the shallows, and the higher the tide, the closer to shore they hang out. So there he was! Right in front of me, on a pier, squinting into the water. He's been here long enough by now that he must be making a living. I don't know where he came from; it's possible he came up from the New Jersey marshes, but it's more likely he's on his way south from New England. I'm hoping he likes it here, and remembers the place when he heads north again in the spring.

I'm easily depressed, but it doesn't take much to cheer me up, does it?