swamp friends

May 29, 2026

Sara Kate Wilkinson

Sara Kate Wilkinson

— 5 min read
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May 29, 2026
Bird of the Day: green heron, small superstar

Where: Huntley Meadows Park

When: 4:40 pm

Bird Species: Carolina chickadee, ruby-throated hummingbird, eastern bluebird, blue-gray gnatcatcher, mourning dove, northern cardinal, common yellowthroat, eastern kingbird, green heron, red-winged blackbird, indigo bunting, osprey, great blue heron, barn swallow, orchard oriole, wood duck, Canada goose, American goldfinch, red-headed woodpecker

Things I Thought About:

  • Ohhh, it's so quiet and breezy out here today. Not humid, either. Perfect conditions.
  • The second I hit the boardwalk a hummingbird streaks past me. For a second I thought it was one of the giant summer bugs, and by the time I raise my camera, he's gone, I think. Hummingbirds love honeysuckle as much as I do.
Not quite, but I don' think I could have done any better with his speed and angle.
  • Oh, wow. Look at that yellowthroat. What a beauty. There's a female snuggled up in the shrub behind him, too. A nice start.
No edits except a light crop; he was that close.
  • I talked a bit about birds at the happy hour last night, and made my pitch for getting to know your local outdoor spaces, and this evening is immediately proving it. Do you want to see an orchard oriole? Look around the last place you saw one. The gnatcatchers and yellowthroats are always on this end of the boardwalk, but the buntings like the tall trees just past the observation tower. Having a hard time finding birds? Check the tops of snags, scope the tall brush at the water's edge. Like anything else, the more you do it, the easier it gets.
  • For example, this eastern kingbird is always in this tree. Birds do not have shoulders, but an eastern kingbird has very square, broad shoulders.
A regal bird, the kingbird. Hey! I bet that's why they named him that.
  • Well, there's the wood duck mama, and it looks like she still has six or seven of her ducklings. Not bad at all! I don't think the celebrity duck couple nested this year at all.
  • There are some snappers, having sex that looks very unpleasant. I believe I am second to none in my admiration for the common snapping turtle, but someone could stand to have a stern word with them about informed consent. Also about not eating ducklings.
  • A great prank of middle age is how I'm becoming more progressive and anti-authority as I age in the broad categories, but more Bitch-About-It-On-NextDoor in the specifics. Fuck the police, but also people who run their dogs off-leash at a wetland sanctuary should be ticketed and fined, and if their dogs go off trail or bark, arrested and shot.
The bird of the day is snake, who was very harassed by an off-leash husky. The husky's owners were likewise very harassed by other park-goers. Not by me, though. I'm a physical coward and both the guy and the dog were big. Don't do that, though.
  • I have been very aware all evening of the FedEx shipment that I am sure is failing to be picked up at the office while I'm at working from home today, and the shipping notification that I haven't yet received, but it's background noise to all the lovely birdsong.
  • Oh, a raccoon! The first one I've seen here. The only raccoon I've ever seen is the one that lived in a dead stump in my backyard in Georgia, who crawled out and took a shit on the lawn while the realtor was showing the house once. I am therefore surprised to find myself wondering if raccoons are actually cute.
Is this thing cute? The science is still undecided.
  • Speaking of birdsong, there is an indigo bunting around here somewhere and it is making me insane. He has to be right here.
Having followed this blog for any length of time, you may or may not have been surprised by how fucking long it took me to find this goddamn bird, who never stopped singing for a second. You see what I have to work with. Enormous, a tree is.
  • My throat is so sore. I sat in a town hall yesterday, a bunch of employees crammed into a small conference room, the first time I've experienced that since 2019, and all I could think was, "Everyone in this room is going to get sick." And I woke up sick, so if everyone does, it will be because of me.
  • I do actually feel pretty bad, but not as bad as not coming to the swamp on a beautiful Friday evening after a week of rain would feel.
  • The last several times I've come here, the red-headed woodpecker has been the last bird I saw as I was leaving the boardwalk after my final loop, and here are two, right where they're supposed to be, like clockwork. I love validating my priors.
A stunning farewell bird. He's very wee.
  • I'm going to do Sunday morning out here, too.

BOTD: Green heron. A great fisherman, who maliciously refused to fish in front of me.

In the way I think people would be shocked by how large a crow is, I think they might be surprised by how small a green heron is. People hear "heron" and think great blues and egrets, tall waders, but the biggest green I've seen was about twice the size of this one, and this one is about the size of a chicken.

Almost missed him in the marsh plants.

He was very close to the boardwalk, so I sat right down and planned to stay there until he ate something. A couple of times he turned his head sharply, and I knew he could see something, but the only real move he made was when he flew off after about ten minutes. A nice ten minutes, though. It's a real luxury, to have the time to be patient.

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