Youngsters
get to know the young hero and the adventures
that carry him toward manhood. As they come to know Jeremiah as a friend who would
understand their own growing pains, they look forward to each book in the
series.
Teachers
will Achieve..
Teachers will appreciate the ways
that Jeremiah Stokely novels, kits, and activities make literature
meaningful to children. Teachers can download free classroom idea
packets to hold a hand-on workshop based on each book.
Click the >Play button
to listen to the bird's song!
Great Blue Heron (Ardea
herodias)
Length 46 in., wingspan 72 in. (6 ft.), weight 5.3
lbs., Family Ardeidae
Tall and long-necked, the Great Blue is the largest of
North American herons. Usually solitary, it wades slowly and patiently in
quiet water while hunting fish, frogs, salamanders, turtles, and small water
birds. It also hunts on land for insects, snakes and small mammals. It lives
near water in marshes, tidelands, rivers and lakes, even farm ponds, nesting
in spring and summer from southeast Alaska southward into Mexico, the
Galapagos Islands, and the West Indies. It winters over in much of its
breeding range, so it is possible to see it at almost any time of year.
Its body and wings are mostly blue-gray, and it has a
black shoulder patch and black belly. Its head is white with a black stripe
along the sides of the crown. Its neck is gray with black streaks down the
front. Its bill is very long and yellowish, its legs long and black. Its
“knees” appear to bend backwards. During breeding season, both genders
become bluer and have long, showy plumes on head, neck and back.
Herons nest year after year in the same areas, in
groups from a few pairs to hundreds, even with other heron species such as
egrets. They build nests 20 to 98 feet above the ground. The male gathers
building materials and presents them to the female, who uses her bill to
build a large platform nest of sticks. She lays three or four blue-green
eggs one or more days apart. Parents take turns warming, or incubating, the
eggs. To keep them all warm, the parent stands up and turns the eggs over
with its bill about once every two hours. It takes 25 to 29 days for the
eggs to hatch, and they hatch in the order the eggs were laid. Both parents
feed the young regurgitated (partially digested) fish. Usually only one or
two of the older chicks survive, since they are larger and can compete for
food. Young herons begin to fly about 2 months after hatching.
The heron’s flight call is a deep hoarse trumpet or honk. Its threatening or
startled call is a series of harsh croaks. The Great Blue Heron flies with
huge, slow, heavy wingbeats, holding its legs straight back and bending its
long neck into its shoulders in an S shape. It can fly 35 miles per hour!
