Silent wars

Whilst talking with our neighbor Joe today, I noticed a largish heron land in Pam and Dave's front yard. It was all out of breath and landed rather near to us, completely ignoring the fearsome growls emanating from Clovis. This occurred to me as odd.

About 20 minutes later, Curt called me from downstairs. He said that two herons just finished fighting right by our downstairs slider. By the time I crept out with the camera, one of them was gone and the other was heading into the heavy underbrush.

I slipped out of my flip-flops and pattered down the garden path to get some snaps of the terrified creature. He obviously saw me and tried to camouflage himself (right behind a tree). So, guiltily I backed off.

As I retreated, the other bird descended on the rear bank again. I felt rather bad for the hiding heron as it seemed to be hyperventilating (I should note also that it's in the mid-90's out there). So, I shooed off the attacker. With almost no effort, he swung out over the lake and flew to the neighbour's yard to attempt a campaign from that side.

I just couldn't watch anymore. The strange thing was that with all of this going on, there was complete silence. Here are a few images of the hiding heron: