Everyone here probably knows what the Green Lantern theory of politics is. What about the Green Heron?
Basically, it’s yelling. Open thread!
ETA: We’re coming up on the third anniversary of moving to the swamp, and I’ve learned many things, including: 1. how to identify submerged turtles, fish and gators by the ripple patterns they leave on the surface of the water, and 2. Green Herons cluck very much like chickens.
Mousebumples
Seems to “work” for TFG. I just wish real life came with a mute button sometimes…
WaterGirl
Yelling works for me at this point
edit: If I’m the one yelling at the anti-vaxxers, Republicans, and the send-women-back-to-the-stone-age people.
Super Dave
HEY!
Just kidding.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mousebumples:
Isn’t there a scene in Being There where Chauncey Gardner points a remote at one of the lawyers and keeps pushing the mute button?
SiubhanDuinne
Green Heron appears to be having a bad
hairfeathers day.WaterGirl
@Super Dave: WHAT? I COULDN’T HEAR YOU!
James E Powell
If that bird were the lead singer of a band, what genre would the band’s music be?
Betty Cracker
@James E Powell: Ska, obviously! ?
dmsilev
Yes yes, but what we all want know is whether heron tastes like chicken.
TriassicSands
Admit it , Betty, you Photoshopped that heron’s head to be nine times actual size. OK, so you didn’t. That critter looks like it could swallow its own body.
Betty Cracker
@TriassicSands: Here’s the same bird when it’s not freaking out. ?
joel hanes
If frogs made movies,
that picture would make an excellent lobby poster for a Saturday matinee monster movie
germy
@Betty Cracker:
The first photo is the heron on weekends.
The second photo is the heron on a job interview.
Betty Cracker
@joel hanes: The Attack of Hell Heron!
germy
I bet it works, too.
Betsy
I love your swamp pictures and swamp stories! Hard to believe it’s been three years. I remember being so impressed with the new spot you found for yourselves. But it doesn’t seem like it was that long ago. COVID/TFG time warp I guess.
I always think the green heron is such an oddly named bird. To me it looks mostly slate blue and rust, with some golden yellow here and there.
Of course, that’s not unusual; the ornithological people seem to have misnamed about 50% of North American birds (imho). The indigo Bunting is more like teal blue. The red-bellied woodpecker has a notably red HEAD and its red belly is invisible unless you are dissecting it in a museum specimen tray.
Don’t get me started on the Northern Mockingbird, which mostly doesn’t live up north, or the Acadian flycatcher which doesn’t live in Louisiana or Maine particularly, or the palm warbler which has nothing to do with palm trees, and so on, and so forth.
ETA: Awesome photos.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Wow. That seems nearly impossible, except that of course I completely believe you.
germy
I’ve never seen the heron dance.
Betty
@SiubhanDuinne: I did that to my husband once when I had muted the American Airlines ad and he started singing the jingle. He was offended. I apologized.
germy
The world is just one big restaurant.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Is that a neck extender, or what?
Mousebumples
@SiubhanDuinne: haven’t seen it, so I’ll go with… Could be?
Kay
He’s so cute and screechy- looking.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Betty Cracker: we should be on about the start of 6th wave ska right now…
i blame napster for killing the golden skank
Ruckus
There are many animals that puff up or fluff up or sound off in some way when excited or scared or pissed off or parading for mutual relations, hell a lot of humans do it, even if not to the extent of some of the other animals. An example, singles bar attendees.
TriassicSands
@Betty Cracker:
Much more suitable for the mantel. I’ve always loved green herons.
@germy:
The first photo is the green heron at a MAGA rally.
The second photo is the same green heron being interviewed by police after January 6, 2021.
Note: Fortunately, green herons, for all their yelling, don’t belong to any political party.
CaseyL
@germy: Very good!
We have lots of Great Blue Herons here in the PNW. They know they’re gorgeous, and strike poses so we can admire them… from a distance, of course.
Greens must be tropical, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen one hereabouts or heard of them being around here. Love the rock star hair in the first photo.
And that Great Blue eating a rat…OMG. Remember that old Alka Seltzer commercial?
“I can’t believe I ate the whole thing!”
“Believe it, Ralph.”
Redshift
Interesting. We have green herons in the pond at the office park where I work (well, whenever that happens again), and I love them. They’re very skittish and never let me get close enough to hear any sound they make.
germy
@TriassicSands:
If we see a third photo of the heron in a wheelchair, we’ll know it’s at his trial.
Cameron
@germy: I thought the first photo was Meth Heron.
Spanky
Green Herons are, of course, simply unripened Blue Herons.
lowtechcyclist
The second pic is the heron at his day job, the first is the heron performing with his band on weekends.
trollhattan
Not good times in the neighborhood. Police and FD are investigating a fatal house fire as arson. We even had a detective canvas here at the house. Poor woman and her dogs are dead and a prowler had been reported in the next-door neighbor’s yard.
Redshift
@Betsy:
If they catch the sunlight at the right angle, they have some some very striking green in their feathers. But you’re right, in a lot of conditions, the green isn’t very visible.
Here is a photo from the Cornell Ornithology Lab site that shows it.
raven
Gil Scott-Heron – Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Kelly
@CaseyL: We have a few green herons on Oregon’s N Santiam. saw the first one maybe 5 years ago. They are well camouflaged.
Ten Bears
Even Cowgirls Get The Blues
sab
@Redshift: We used to have green herons at our office pond when I worked in Marin. very skittish about most people, except for the bagpiper who practiced at lunch every day. They liked him.
HumboldtBlue
The women’s draw at the US Open is absolutely fantastic. 18-year-old Leylah Fernandez of Canada is playing lights out and is one win away from advancing to the quarters.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
So cute!
zhena gogolia
@trollhattan: Oh, that’s scary.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: I’m sorry. We had a fellow and his fiancé die in a fire one block over from here, and it haunted me for at least a couple of years, every time I drove by the house.
What a terrible thing, and for it to be arson is 100x worse.
SpaceUnit
Since this is an open thread with a critter theme, does anybody know an effective way to deter wasps? Come late summer they are relentless around my place. I assume they’re trying to start new nests before the colder weather moves in.
I’ve tried a bunch of solutions that popped up on google – peppermint, cloves, ammonia, etc – but nothing really works. They’re everywhere. I hate spraying raid all over the place.
mrmoshpotato
I’m ok with that. That’s less terrifying in sight and sound than that shoebill machine gun-face nightmare.
NotMax
How can you tell when they’re ripe?
Redshift
@sab: That’s awesome. I’ll have to get one of the pipers I know to try that.
trollhattan
@zhena gogolia: @WaterGirl:
We’re all a little pins-and-needley here as the investigation unfolds. I don’t have any “inside” access so relying on the very terse official statements and good old neighborhood gossip.
We knew her conversationally only–she was a chatty older lady who walked her doggies from a bicycle. Just sick about it.
mrmoshpotato
@joel hanes: Hooray for creature features!
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: Do you have a smoke detector?
The sister of the fellow who died in the fire walked the neighborhood that spring offering free smoke detectors (and I think installation of them) to anyone in the neighborhood who wanted on. Her brother had not had a smoke detector.
It was both lovely and heartbreaking. I am tearing up just typing this.
trollhattan
@SpaceUnit:
Traps are commercially available with attractants that draw them inside. They can help reduce the sheer numbers.
Do you know what kind they are? We have “mud wasps” “paper wasps” and “yellowjackets/meat bees.”
The last are by far the worst–getting very aggressive in fall as their numbers skyrocket. They don’t hibernate, new colonies start each season. They’re attracted to protein of any kind and a homemade trap comprising a container of soapy water and a piece of chicken or similar suspended over the water can do the trick. Have built many during camping trips.
Happy hunting!
Ken
Apparently I’ve got it easy. The only things that make ripples in the pond near me are catfish and snapping turtles (common, not alligator). I’m pretty sure there are other fish since (1) that doesn’t seem like a balanced ecology and (2) there are a couple of herons that dine there.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
We’re dual: central alarm with smoke detection plus standalone units required by code. Worth it, even if it’s a PITA when cooking triggers the alarm and we frantically call before the FD shows up.
SpaceUnit
@trollhattan: Not sure what kind they are. The waspy stingy kind by the looks of them. Actually they look similar to yellowjackets but longer and skinnier. They fly different.
Maybe some traps is what I need. Thanks!
mrmoshpotato
@SiubhanDuinne:
That green heron is a rocking out feathers day. ?
Another Scott
@Redshift: Thanks for that. I thought maybe the name came from the greenish legs.
Great pictures, BC!
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: Good to know that.
Yeah, when the tree fell on my house 8 years ago, the electricians suggested that they hardwire the smoke detector and the carbon monoxide detector. Easy decision, really glad that I said yes.
NotMax
trollhattan
Best avoid the charcoal grill made of cardboard in a video I linked to in the morning thread.
;)
trollhattan
@SpaceUnit:
If you can trap some you’ll have a better shot at an I.D. That way you’ll know what nests to search for.
I see yellowjackets most commonly nesting in the ground, while mud wasps are in my eaves and covered outdoor structures. Breaking apart the cells is always interesting, they’re often packed with spiders. [shudder]
SpaceUnit
@trollhattan: Yeah, they’re always trying to get into my eaves and the vent to my attic, pretty much everywhere really. Little bastards.
trollhattan
@NotMax:
There’s a concept that deserved exploring? “What could possibly go wrong?”
Speaking of smoke, saw an ad for a hipster bartender accessory that creates smoke for infusing into your fancypants eighteen dollar artisanal cocktails.
Rob
Green Herons are lovely, whether they are alert and squawking or calmly standing
TriassicSands
@Betty Cracker:
I have been blissfully unaware of the Bruenigs except very tangentially. I know that M.B. is reputed to be an online bully, but what is so awful about E.B.? Mostly, from the little I’ve seen, she seems stupid. But that describes so many Americans, it’s become the acceptable norm.
Care to fill me in on E.B.’s awfulness? Or is it just a growing record of “dumbosity?”
Others can chime in.
NotMax
@trollhattan
Care to try the Mesquitini?
//
Another Scott
@TriassicSands: For an example, see the thread just downstairs.
Agreed that life is too short to get annoyed (for long) by some rando on the internet.
Cheers,
Scott.
TriassicSands
@Another Scott:
Thanks, Scott, I went through that thread, so I have some idea. However, I know Betty’s posts/comments better than those of most others here so I wondered what she thinks.
A quick synopsis would do, since I don’t want to spend too much time learning about someone I’m probably going to spend the rest of my life avoiding. I have to admit, though, EB’s comment about ivermectin was probably enough to convince me to ignore her forever.
afterist
I don’t comment here often, but I really do like tales from the swamp, Betty.
Skepticat
The yellow-crowned night herons in the Bahamas have the YELL part down pat. They have the worst loud, raucous screech; it tends to lift me and the cats right off the couch when they come up on the deck, and the times I’ve accidentally jumped one in the yard have nearly led to cardiac arrest (for me, not the brassy birds).
HinTN
@raven:
Had that vinyl once upon a time.
Nettoyeur
When I am in Kyoto in warmer weather, I like to get a beer and some snacks and sit on the bank of the Kamo river just downstream of the Sanjo bridge and watch the herons fish for their supper. They sit there, as unmoving as rocks, until just the right moment, and then they lunge, extending their necks like lightning. And they always get fish, which they swallow in one gulp. There are hordes of silly white egrets wandering around, but they move too much to catch many fish. The herons, however, are still but deadly.
PaulWartenberg
There was a shooting in Lakeland FL this morning and it pisses me off we still have gun violence in this nation.
https://www.theledger.com/story/news/crime/2021/09/05/polk-county-shootings-what-we-know-suspect-bryan-riley/5742304001/
Albatrossity
@Betsy:
Well, in the light an Indigo Bunting, particularly the head of an older male, is not teal but definitely indigo, almost purple. The problem is that they rarely sit in light like that!
And the Northern Mockingbird is named because its range is the most northerly of the several species of Mockingbirds. Ditto for the Northern Cardinal. There are lots of other Mockingbirds, and lots of other Cardinals south of us. Here’s a Tropical Mockingbird in Mexico, from an On The Road post here earlier this year. Our USA geography is not the only geography that ornithologists pay attention to!
But yeah, a lot of birds are named for features that are really not obvious in the field, or for places where they only occur rarely (Nashville Warbler, Connecticut Warbler, Prairie Warbler, to give just a few examples).
Just a teaser – there will be pics and video of a Green Heron in an upcoming On The Road post this month. Stay tuned!
evodevo
@CaseyL: We have lots of greens here in northern KY – the old country name for them was “shagpoke” (have NO idea about the etymology of that) – we had almost NO blues here before about 25 years ago, for some reason…now there’s one who hangs around in our creek every summer…
Betty Cracker
@TriassicSands: It’s the cumulative effect of the stupidity combined with the upward failing. EB is not only wrong; she’s relentlessly self-referential and unoriginal, so it’s galling that she manages to occupy such lofty perches. I also find the way she passively aggressively defends her antisemite bully of a husband irritating.
evodevo
@SpaceUnit: Depends on what species they are….the brown and yellow striped ones are Polistes and are looking for a winter hibernation spot. If they are smaller and very slender, and yellow and black striped, they are yellowjackets (very toxic venom – beware) looking for spilled pop or garbage or whatever and tanking up for the winter (they nest underground in swarms in permanent hives). (actually, the peppermint and cloves probably ATTRACT them lol) Don’t know about any others…If they attack you, you can drive them off with Fantastic cleaning spray until you can make a getaway…as to a permanent solution, well, if the nests are on your property, an exterminator might help.