by Sandra Mink
I see these slate gray birds with their long sturdy orange beaks hunched over, hiding in the thick tangled brush. I see them swooping up from the drainage ditch near my home, rising with their wide majestic wings extended four or even five feet, spindly legs hanging down beneath them. I am captivated by them as they lean out over the surface of the laguna with intense concentration waiting for the right second to snatch a mullet. Whatever they are doing, they are completely in the moment. They are truly Zen creatures, something I strive to be. Something I must work at, but they need not.
According to David Allen’s book called What it’s Like to be a Bird, light reflecting off of water bends at the surface displacing the images in the water. This means that a fish can appear to be as much as three inches away from where it actually is. Herons and egrets know how to position themselves so that their angle of sight is just right, allowing them to correct for this. We would, according to Allen, have to use a mathematical calculation to figure this out. But, Zen creatures that they are, herons just know. According to the Back Yard Biology website (bybio.wordpress.com), Great Blue Herons have a 90% to 95% success rate when fishing.
I like to imagine being a Great Blue Heron, alert to every rustle in the brush, every reflection of light off the water surface, every movement of the finning fishes under water, every smell, every breeze, but not to the passage of time. I am grateful to the heron for allowing me to experience this vicariously.