This is the first time I’ve been mooned by a blue heron.  This one is on Pine Acres Lake, a small, shallow body of water near the eastern Connecticut town of Hampton.

It’s beginning to get chilly up here now, highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s, but as long as I get a bit of sun, the paddling’s still OK if I bundle up a bit.

This heron got me to wondering when and if they migrate south for the winter.  The short answer is they do and they don’t.  Or, better put, they don’t have to.  The key is open water for fishing.  As long as they have that they will happily hang around in the winter.

This map confuses the issue further.  At the north and south extremes there is migration, but in the middle many just stay put.

Meanwhile, here are some other heron photos from Pine Acres the other day.