Duo

I took my camera with me on our walk around the bog this morning. While my intent was to catch a glimpse of the heron, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the harvest had started.

Most cranberry growers around here wet-harvest their berries. This means they flood the bog so that the plants are covered with water, then agitate the berries off the plant with a weird looking ride-on contraption. The berries float to the top and they use booms to gather and contain them to one area. Then they suck up all the berries into a dump truck and take them away for processing. Then the bog gets drained again - until really cold weather, then it's flooded to help protect the berries from temperature extremes and, if it freezes solid, we go skating.

The pictures I took today at the bog aren't particularly interesting. The light was really flat. On sunny days, the cranberry harvest is quite spectacular - the blue in the sky, the red of the berries contained in the booms, the fall colors in the trees around the bogs. Unfortunately it doesn't look as though we'll have that kind of weather in the next several days.

About three-quarters of the way around the bog, the dog pulled a little and I looked around - and there was the heron. It had taken off from a concealed spot near the path and was flying low over the water. I couldn't get my camera out quickly enough. In case it came back our way, I turned on my camera and we continued.

I kept looking at the heron where it had landed off in the distance when I caught another movement out of the corner of my eye and the dog pulled again.

A second heron.

I was able to get a couple pictures of the second heron, but they are not very good. As I mentioned, the light was pretty flat out there.

We followed the herons' movements for a few minutes and watched as both of them flew to the supply pond. By then, it was time to be moving on anyway.