The Great Blue Heron does not make a good pet

The Great Blue Heron.(andrea herodias)

length: 36-54 inches

weight: 4.8-8lbs

wingspan: as much as 6 feet at times

The great Blue Heron is common in North America and can be found along water habitats such as fresh and salt water marshes, rivers,swamps, flooded meadows, lake edges, and shorelines.

Their diet consists of small fish. Which they spear with their long sharp beak. They are amazing creatures able to fly at great speed from the air to the water to spear fish with powerful force.

The first time I saw one of them was beside a small creek. When it flew out in front of me up in the air screeching with its hoarse croaking squawk, I thought I had seen a long lost prehistoric pterodactyl ! This bird looks tiny but is very large when in flight.

Thanks to Wikipedia,

Here is an image of one in its own environment.

And a Blue Heron in flight.

Unfortunately this is what was brought to our front door this past weekend.

This Blue Heron had been hit by a car we believe. His pelvic bone felt dislocated, and as you can see his legs were unable to move. This bird was brought to our home by a concerned individual who found this bird in her yard. She called animal control and they told her to bring it to this State Park. (???!!!) So while it was still stunned she placed it in a small pet carrier box and drove out here with it.

The first thing we asked was have you contacted Walden's Puddle?

Walden's Puddle is a wildlife refuge and rehablitation center in Joelton,Tn that takes in wildlife creatures that have been injured and helps them heal and be safely re-released into the wild.

http://www.waldenspuddle.org/

They had not been notified. So David went into the park office to give them a call.

As interesting as this was to see. It was very sad to see such a magnificent creature slightly askew inside this box. However, even though it was still in the box, Elle-girl and I kept our distance. For this is a wild creature who does not understand the situation that it has been placed in. It was at this moment the lady that had brought us this bird decided that his neck looked uncomfortable inside this box and decided to scoop him up like you would a small puppy so he could re adjust.

Before I could warn her that she shouldn't move him, it was too late. As she was holding him he raised his long neck focused on her face and struck her in the eye with his sharp beak.

A little stunned and assuring myself and her 3 children that were with her that she was ok, her eye began to bleed.

I took her inside the office at that time where David began to then administer First Aide. After cleaning the area and providing her with an eye patch he calmly instructed her to please go straight to the ER. He later explained to me that she had a small hole puncture the size of a nail in her eyeball, and would likely have severe trama to her sight.

In the end, Walden's Puddle was unable to contact us in time for it was the weekend, and the Heron, did not make it through the day.

To my readers. Especially those of you living near bodies of water, please, please, please, If you come in contact with an injured wild animal, birds included, do not move it. Try to contact the proper officials. Look online for wildlife rehablitation center near you to contact in case of something like this. A State park, especially a Historic State park is not the one to handle such a situation , though it might seem like the right thing to do. It is not. If you can not find someone to properly remove the animal, as hard as this might sound, you should probably just let nature take its course.

We hope that the woman who was injured is doing okay, and we realize she was just trying to do the right thing.

But , where wildlife animals are concerned. Please be careful!~