Great Blue Heron killing machine

[coola...@gmail.com]

About a week ago we woke up to the sight of a GBH standing in the back of our yard near where we feed the squirrels (away from the bird feeders).  Upon further inspection we noticed that he was hunting and in that short period we saw him catch and eat what looked like a mole and a mouse.  

We thought this was a one-time thing, but he has been here consistently just going to town.  He's pretty much wiped out the chippy population.  Interestingly, he doesn't mess with the grey squirrels, but everything else is fair game (pun intended).

Don't know how common this is.  Been here 20 years and never seen it.  We live on Pine Point Road close to the Marsh, and I've noticed more GBH than usual this year.  Maybe that has something to do with it.

[Allison Wells]

This is a fascinating post and interestingly, Jeff and I just wrote about what Great Blue Herons eat in our latest post at our NRCM blog. If you’re curious about what Great Blue Herons really eat, you can read about it here:

https://www.nrcm.org/blog/birding-jeff-allison/what-do-great-blue-herons-really-eat/

Links to two videos that we were fortunate to capture  - one went viral, with more than a million views (you might see why if you watch it).

Allison and Jeff Wells

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 3, 2021, at 8:37 PM, coola...@gmail.com <coola...@gmail.com> wrote:

About a week ago we woke up to the sight of a GBH standing in the back of our yard near where we feed the squirrels (away from the bird feeders).  Upon further inspection we noticed that he was hunting and in that short period we saw him catch and eat what looked like a mole and a mouse.  

We thought this was a one-time thing, but he has been here consistently just going to town.  He's pretty much wiped out the chippy population.  Interestingly, he doesn't mess with the grey squirrels, but everything else is fair game (pun intended).

Don't know how common this is.  Been here 20 years and never seen it.  We live on Pine Point Road close to the Marsh, and I've noticed more GBH than usual this year.  Maybe that has something to do with it.

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[Jill]

We see GBH stalking rodents in our farm fields from time to time - we’re a couple of miles from water.

On Aug 3, 2021, at 9:07 PM, coola...@gmail.com <coola...@gmail.com> wrote:

About a week ago we woke up to the sight of a GBH standing in the back of our yard near where we feed the squirrels (away from the bird feeders).  Upon further inspection we noticed that he was hunting and in that short period we saw him catch and eat what looked like a mole and a mouse.  

We thought this was a one-time thing, but he has been here consistently just going to town.  He's pretty much wiped out the chippy population.  Interestingly, he doesn't mess with the grey squirrels, but everything else is fair game (pun intended).

Don't know how common this is.  Been here 20 years and never seen it.  We live on Pine Point Road close to the Marsh, and I've noticed more GBH than usual this year.  Maybe that has something to do with it.

[Donald Thompson]

Hi, I have seen Great Blue Herons eating voles in the fields on Cliff island when we have a high vole population. A relative also told me, last month, of a Great Blue heron repeatedly going to an osprey nest that had young  . The adult osprey did drive the Heron off the two different times she saw this behavior.   Don

https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/maine-birds/F08FAFE7-1682-4688-9371-32E2D8B075AB%40yahoo.com

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