{"id":466,"date":"2007-05-23T21:18:51","date_gmt":"2007-05-23T12:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-05-23\/466"},"modified":"2007-05-23T21:18:51","modified_gmt":"2007-05-23T12:18:51","slug":"lunch-with-a-great-blue-heron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-05-23\/466","title":{"rendered":"Lunch with a Great Blue Heron"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 200mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1000 sec, f\/7.1, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFish.....      Tasty.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 78mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f\/4.5, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nGreat Blue Heron at Home<\/span>\nat the Reina de Reina<\/i> Mexican Restaurant\n<\/div>\n\n

Every once in a while we see a great blue heron around this building\n(across from where these\nnight blossom shots<\/a> were taken), usually standing motionless on the\nsloping banister wall. The first<\/span> time we saw him we didn't even realize it\nwas real, until eventually it moved slightly.<\/p>\n\n

I happened to have my camera with me when I saw<\/span> him on the banister wall\ntoday, and was about to take his picture when he jumped down to the stairs\nleading to the basement property. I ran up<\/span> to look, and saw him go down and\ninside, and then saw a lady<\/span> close the door. Odd!<\/p>\n\n

The lady soon came out with a plate of fish, followed by the blue heron\nwith an “enough already, hand'em over!” look in its eye. In the out<\/span>-of-focus\nshow below (sorry), you can see his crest is quite, uh, crested.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 200mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>4000 sec, f\/3.2, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nHungry Heron<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 98mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>5000 sec, f\/2.8, ISO 250,\n —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nCrest Subsides After First Fish<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 116mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>640 sec, f\/7.1, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFifth Fish Unflaps Feathered Fedora<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

He barely gets a fish past his mouth when he was going back for more. They became lumps in his ever-thickening neck.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 70mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1500 sec, f\/7.1, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nNeck Full o' Fish<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

I chatted with the lady a bit to get the story. It seems<\/span> 10 years ago\nthe owner of the building would throw out scraps of food for the heron, and\nover time the heron trained him to give him full plates of fish. Plate-fed\nfish are much less work than hunting for food, so the heron has apparently\nbecome domesticated in that respect. He's also unfazed<\/span> by strangers even\nin close proximity, but otherwise is wild.<\/p>\n\n

In one sense it's a bit sad — Fumie noted that his dependence on\nthe people is why you shouldn't feed wild animals, despite it being cute. At least<\/span> in this case, so far, it's turned out well for the bird because\naccording to the lady, he's outlived all his contemporaries.<\/p>\n\n

I don't know how old he is, but for what it's worth, according to this\nreference<\/a>, the average of a Great<\/span> Blue Heron is about 15 years.<\/p>\n\n

Let's just hope that they continue feeding him. The ground-level\nrestaurant (Mexican restaurant Reina de Reina<\/a>) is\nnew and prior to it opening there was an extended period of construction,\nso I doubt<\/span> he feeding schedule was normal.<\/p>\n\n

The heron's name is “Aotan.”<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 200mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>350 sec, f\/6.3, ISO 250,\n —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nDressed for Dinner<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

By the way, I ate at<\/span> the restaurant the other day with Shimada-san<\/a>, to celebrate\nboth his birthday and his earning a licence<\/span> which allows him to drive large\nvehicles (busses, cement trucks, cranes, etc.), a difficult<\/span> task in Japan.\n(For comparison, look at some\nof the hassles<\/a> required just for a car<\/span> license.)<\/p>\n\n

The crap one gets in a so-called “Mexican Restaurant” in America has\ntrained me to believe that I'm not a huge<\/span> fan of Mexican, but I tell<\/span> you,\nthis place was superb. Portions were small, which on the bright side allows\nyou to order a variety<\/span> of things. It add up<\/span> to be a bit<\/span> pricy ($70 for the\ntwo of us, including four 700-yen beers), but it was quite worth it. You could<\/span> really taste the freshness and quality in each bite, especially in\nthe salsa and the chile con carne. I hope to<\/span> take Fumie there sometime,\nonce she gets over the cold that's been nagging her for the last week.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 160mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>500 sec, f\/2.8, ISO 100,\nP.P. cut: -0.14EV<\/span>\n —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nWannabe<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After Aotan got his six fish, he hopped up onto the roof to digest in the sun. He looked<\/span> content.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 200mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>1600 sec, f\/4.5, ISO 250 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFood Coma<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every once in a while we see a great blue heron around this building (across from where these night blossom shots were taken), usually standing motionless on the sloping banister wall. The first time we saw him we didn't even realize it was real, until eventually it moved slightly.<\/p>

I happened to have my camera with me when I saw him on the banister wall today, and was about to take his picture when he jumped down to the stairs leading to the basement property. I ran up to look, and saw him go down and inside, and then saw [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}