Last week a little brown bird with speckles walked very slowly through my yard. He looked like a heron, but I hadn't seen his kind in all the time I've lived in Florida.
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| Eastern Birds | Peterson |
I consulted a Peterson Field Guide and discovered that he was an immature Yellow-Crowned Night Heron. When he's fully grown, he'll become black, gray and white, and look very different.
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| Eastern Birds | Peterson |
The immature Black-Crowned Night Heron would look very similar, but the speckles would be a bit larger.
My sister-in-law, Alice, allowed me to share a heron crest feather that she collected. It is the essence of aerodynamics.
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| rtpi.org |
The Peterson Field Guides are amazing books, and these are just a few of them.
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| usgs.gov |
In 1934, Roger Tory Peterson (1908-1996) wrote and illustrated the first major modern field guide, Guide to the Birds, and the first edition sold out in one week. He went on to write or edit a whole nature series, and his work is continued today through the Roger Tory Peterson Institute.
I quote from a short article in Wikipedia:
Paul R. Ehrlich, in The Birder's Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds (Fireside. 1988), said this about Peterson:
In this century, no one has done more to promote an interest in living creatures than Roger Tory Peterson, the inventor of the modern field guide.Peterson received many awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, nominations for the Nobel Prize, and numerous honorary doctorates.
What a cute little Heron to have trotting through your garden Mark.
ReplyDeleteI saw adult Yellow-Crowned Night Herons nesting on Anna Maria Island in March 2011. They seem to be birds that enjoy companionship. There were many nests at the top of one big tree and they looked very comical standing in their high rise apartments.
Hi, Rosemary - My guest still had a rather downy look. I see more egrets at my house than herons, and the egrets are quite elegant. They stand motionless in the water for so long that you wonder whether they're sculptures. Then they'll suddenly lunge to grab a fish, and the movement is always a surprise.
ReplyDeleteHello Mark:
ReplyDeleteThe difference between the young and adult Heron is really startling, but how wonderful to have a visit from this elegant bird in your own garden.
When we lived in Herefordshire we were fascinated by the accounts of Kilvert who observed Nature so closely and so well. It was such fun to track down flora and fauna of the countryside, rather like you have done with the Peterson guides.
Hello Jane and Lance:
DeleteI have not yet read Kilvert's diary, but your comment has whetted my appetite. Years ago I read Samuel Pepys and have to confess that I enjoyed his delicious gossip.
As to the difference between the young and mature heron, I'm always intrigued by how natures camouflages animals, and when and where. But that leaves me wondering, why are ducklings yellow?
whatever the species-this visitor is quite the thing. pgt
ReplyDeleteYes, he looks like something out of an old Bewick engraving.
DeleteVery cute bird, whatever it is. I always loved those Peterson nature guides, and I even remember the Herbert Zim series from elementary school. My main nature interest was botany, and the manuals I remember the best are two real classics: Britton and Brown's Flora and Gray's Manual of Botany.
ReplyDeleteHello, Parnassus,
DeleteAnd I note from Reggie Darling's blog that you have collected some beautiful antique books on botany. My father was the one with a green thumb in our family, and I saved, more out of sentiment, his Wise Gardening Encyclopedia. If you are anything like he, I'll bet you also enjoy seed catalogs.
It's quite interesting that they change their color so dramatically. Perhaps the old ones have just gone gray. It happens to the best of us.
ReplyDeleteI was just using my mom's Peterson's guide to identify some of the birds around her house that I wasn't familiar with. They're quite easy to use.
Hi, Steve,
DeleteAll internet biographies of Peterson mention that he developed the "Peterson Identification System." I'm guessing that not only includs arrows indicating what to look for, but perhaps also the way he grouped birds. In any case, his guides are very easy to use. There are quite a few rather exotic birds in my town (including an ocassional flamingo!) so I consult the Peterson Field Guide too.
A teenage bird. Maybe you'll see him again when he's all grown up. What a nice surprise in your back yard, Mark. :)
ReplyDeleteI have many of the Peterson Field Guides on my shelves. They were essential as illustration references once upon a time before the internet. I still prefer them. Some copies are falling apart, but I keep them around anyway.
Hi, Yvette,
DeleteLike you, I still have reference books that I used before the days of the Internet and digital cameras. Does the Fairburn System sound familiar? I also still have themed files of photo clippings that came in handy for illustration reference. I could probably chuck them all ...
Dear Mark, What a handsome little visitor you had. I'm surprised that you were able to get such an excellent photo.
ReplyDeleteI must look for Peterson's book. We have so many birds stop by our pond, often only for a few minutes. I have called all of them cranes. I think that it is time to properly identify them. Thanks for introducing us to Peterson.
Dear Gina,
DeleteThere are a number of Peterson Field Guides devoted to birds of different sections of the country, including East, Central and West. There's also Birds of North America, which is probably a more complete book.
We have a family friend who's a birder from New York, and she always visits with her Birds of Eastern America, which is quite compact.
What a wonderful guest! So glad you had your camera at the ready, Mark. The difference from young to adult is amazing. I hope the heron will return again and again. Do keep us posted.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Loi
Hi, Loi - I get a wide range of birds and animals in my yard — from ibises and egrets to raccoons and snapping turtles — and the ocassional surprise, like an armadillo or a coyote. My camera is always at the ready.
DeleteI love Peterson's Guides. I have many from my scientific illustration days. They are just fabulous references. Btw, nice photo of your "mystery guest." At first glace, I thought it was a heron having a bad hair day ;)
ReplyDelete(PS I landed here via the eudemonic Hattatt blog).
Hello, Elizabeth,
DeleteI'm so glad you visited here, too! I have done some scientific illustrations in the past, though most of my (illustration) work was advertising and editorial.
Our downy friend looks to be not too much older than a chick, does he?
Hi Mark,
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love it when wild guests show up? The animal kind that is - never get tired of them.
Anyes
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Hi, Anyes,
DeleteI'm continuing to learn about our bird population. White ibises wander through my yard now and then and occasionally I'll see a black one. I've always thought they were odd misfits, but since this posting have discovered that they, too, are immature. (Of course the immature ibis might be an odd misfit anyway!)