Big Heron in my Back Yard

(With a grateful nod to The Dead Milkmen).The other morning, George came running into the bedroom to rouse me from my morning Sudoku: "Hey! Check it out! There's a great blue heron out back!"Really?Really.They're not terribly uncommon around us, but they're not something we get on or near our property, since we don't have a water source. I do, FYI, know someone who's back yard fish pond has been fished out by herons dropping by, which is something my local friends should take under advisement if they're considering any landscape renovations. I mean, seriously, people. It's like setting out an all-heron sushi buffet, and I digress. A few days ago, we had a nearly biblical-level deluge in the 'burg; I even joked on the Facebooks about needing to build an ark. When it rains very hard our neighbor's poorly-drained farmlet floods. This creates a temporary lake and paves the way for unexpected visitors. We've had ducks and geese swimming mid-farm-property, which is kind of surreal. There may not have been fish at the farmlet, but there are plenty of snakes and frogs and crickets and mice for an opportunistic heron to feast on.A few things:Hooray for zoom lenses! I was at least a hundred feet away when I took these pictures.They really are magnificent to look at.So long as you don't try to keep a stocked koi pond. (For future reference.)