Killed And Eaten.

Dear Blog,

I’m sorry to have neglected you lo this past (almost) year.

To make it up to you, here is a picture of a Great Blue Heron eating a gopher she has hunted down and killed in a cemetery.

I have seen Great Blue Herons hunting in wetlands many times, spearing with their dagger-like beaks unsuspecting fishes or frogs as they swim by. But a heron hunting gophers on dry land in a historic Mendocino cemetery? Well, this was a first for me.

When today started, I had a simple goal. I was going to photograph the first compelling thing I saw on my way to work, and I was going to post it on my blog with a commentary. But my walk this morning was relatively peaceful and uneventful, and as I passed one of the oldest cemeteries in town on the way to my job, I was losing all hope of anything materializing that was noteworthy enough to re-start this whole blogging business.

But then, less than fifty feet from my office, there she was, a creature completely out of her element. A thing unexpected. A thing figuring out how to survive in a strange environment. A thing adapting, learning, growing... A thing killing rodents instead of frogs and fishes - rodents that have sharp teeth. And stabby claws.

She was a thing killing things and eating things in a place filled with killed things who themselves were being eaten by the things being killed and eaten by her.

And so has been my life.

Love,

Jen