Here in Austin much of our precious rain arrives in the spring. April and May 2019 were good months for rain and, after a storm, the normally dry creek at the bottom of the yard turned into a real creek and ran for about a week. When there’s water in the creek it teems with life – frogs, apparently-instant tadpoles, crawfish, and tiny darting minnows.
On the evening of May 4th, a yellow-crowned night heron arrived to try its luck at fishing. A truly gorgeous bird. It stayed all night, searching the waters for supper, but was unsuccessful. Turns out it was one day too early; by the following evening the fish and crawdads had arrived – washed down from upstream.
Night herons are a little unusual in the Austin area but they migrate through on their journey from Mexico and Central America, where they normally over-winter.
Also appearing in the video are some frogs. Their eyes shine in the camera’s infrared and they’re easy to spot and zoom in on.
One Comment
What a capture! Water and wildlife!