Hi all--
We went over to Hughes Hollow this morning in hopes that the Black Rail
heard yesterday might be calling. There we met a number of Gallinule
hopefuls, but as our time was short (Mother's Day event), and we had
seen the gallinlule well three days ago (plus the rail was missing in
action) we opted to drive down to Pennyfield Lock in hopes to seeing a
Yellow-throated Warbler.
Well, a lovely day but no Y-T Warbler and essentially no other migrants,
just local breeders including numerous Parulas, Baltimore Orioles and
Indigo Buntings. We did flush a WILD TURKEY from behind the first pond
north of the locks. It flew across the river -- not without some concern on
our part as it dipped closer and closer to the swiftly flowing water before
madly flapping, gaining some altitude and crash-landing on the (island)
shore.
However this little drama was eclipsed by the scene in the next pond north
where a Great Blue Heron was floundering up to its "wingpits" in the
murky water, calling hoarsely and with crest erect in agitation. As we
watched, it struggled, with considerable effort and "swimming" with its
wings, into more shallow water. At that point the horrified observers who
had by then gathered saw that a HUGE snapping turtle had it firmly by one
ankle! This was one of the largest snappers I have ever seen. The bird
tried to gain the bank, but the huge reptile relentlessly dragged it back
into
deeper water. It seemed inevitable that the heron would tire before the
turtle and would be eventually dragged under. We could not stay to watch
(and not sure we wanted to) so we left the poor bird to its fate. There
were
a number of other birders still watching, so perhaps someone may be
able to tell us the conclusion of this life and death struggle.
Gail Mackiernan and Barry Cooper
Colesville, MD
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