Great Blue Heron (totem animal challenge)

[Gita]

Here is the call of the Great Blue Heron:

http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?sortBy=has+audio&...

 

Step, step, step, she moves along the river bank, a careful walker. Her neck – a gray and white question mark – moves in contrapuntal rhythm to her lower body, and the whole of her is a food-seeking machine.

When startled, she lifts off from a quick crouch and, airborne, makes the krup-krup-krawww of a pterodactyl.

Her wingspan is wider than I am tall, wider even than the reach of the bald cypress limb on which she roosts.

 I ache to fly tandem downriver, but my arms are heavy bags of bones.

She will come back tomorrow, to this spot full of bream and smallmouth bass, as will I, to watch again in admiration.

[Cita]

I DID get this, Gita.  It got into the pile, but I was frantic, trying to leave for the backcountry and failed to get my comment posted. Please forgive me for my omission.  When we get to HoW, I want to show you my essay about the heron and the snowy egret.  We have a heron here who eats all of the goldfish out of the water troughs every October. 

[Jamie Hogan]

I wondered if you were going to respond to this challenge, since I figured you would knock the hell out of it. And you didn't disappoint. The bag of bones is wonderful, as several have pointed out, but I love the last. The reader understands more about the author's admiration because there doesn't seem to be another reason for the author to return to that spot. Very show-don't-tell.

[Gita]

I posted it too late for Cita to see, but thanks all for the kind comments.

[Bonnie]

This is, indeed, a beautiful tribute, Gita. You have brought me there, to watch along with you, to wish for flight from the first word to the last.

[Bill Floyd]

Lyrical, aching, uplifting and grounding at once.  Your bag-bone heavy arms lead to fingers that are fleet and aloft.

[Angela]

As others have said, your sentence  about flying tandem was supreme. 

[Tiger]

" I ache to fly..." Beautiful.

[Teresa]

"I ache to fly tandem downriver, but my arems are heavy bags of bones."  Stunning.

[Kristine_ES]

gorgeous observation.  (had to look up contrapuntal. cool word.)

[Diana E. Backhouse]

Herons used to thrive in abundance not too far from here in the Yorkshire Wolds. Sadly they are no more.