Walking along the garden route that has become my new favorite thoughts passed through my mind. Why am I continuing to carry my camera around? There is the one that I have in my pocket but the one in my bag is the one that I like to take pictures with. 

As I rounded the corner to go down the river path I spotted a heron that has been one of the birds that I’ve pursued. I got a quick photo with the phone but then moved out of sight to get the camera out. I quickly swapped the lenses around and packed out from behind the bushes. It was gone. 

Herons are big majestic birds. There is some kind of strange relationship that I have with them. They sometimes show up at the strangest times as some kind of a symbolic entity trying to tell me something. They are easily spooked and this one flew away without me noticing. It could have been the foot traffic that seemed to be passing along this path at this time of the day. 

These herons haven’t been around here in a while. It could have been due to the high water levels. A few weeks ago there was a lot of rain that fell in the area and the river rose significantly. Over the last couple of days however the water levels have fallen and the plants eeking out a living attached to the riverbed are visible. Oh well. At least this episode confirms that I should continue to carry around my camera. 

Continuing along the path I spotted a shape under the canopy. There it is. It’s standing there in its majestic glory watching and maybe hunting for morsels of food. I approached cautiously trying to see how close I could get for a good shot. It spotted me I could tell. It moved its head side to side and even looked dead on at me. I didn’t have much time and I wanted to get closer. 

All of a sudden it unfurled its wings and before I had a chance to zoom out it was airborne. It was spooked and in its rush to get out of there it made contact with some of the branches that were hanging down from the trees above. 

At least I got a few good pictures of it. It made my day to have captured this bird as it went about its day. Living outside the city or outside a major metropolitan centre nature has a different feel. I’ve watched as the grasses and the flowers rose up from the ground and blossomed. I’ve watched as the ducks and swans danced their mating dance and produced offspring. Such cute little babies. They are growing quickly and their parents are doing all that they can to bring them into adulthood. It gives me confidence that the next chapter in my life will be an interesting one even though it is going to be in a place far far away from the rest of civilization.