The Great Blue Heron

I am completely in awe of this amazing bird. Seriously, when I see the Great Blue Heron that lives down at the Alameda Beach Bird Sanctuary near my home, I literally stop in my tracks and stare in awe. It looks so powerful yet delicate, prehistoric yet spiritual and majestic.

I recall a vivid, relevant memory from my childhood. One day when I was out for a hike with my dad at Caswell Park, I saw what I believed to be a Pterodactyl fly above our heads amongst the tree tops! I yelled out in astonishment, "Dad, look its a dinosaur!" He proceeded to explain to me that it was actually a bird, not a dinosaur, but my creative childhood imagination was convinced otherwise. In adult retrospect, this bird must have been a Great Blue Heron. Looking at the picture below of the Heron in flight, it is easy to see how a naive, imaginative child could make this mistake. :)