That, my friends, is a Green Heron! Isn't he beautiful!?! I saw him from a distance as I walked down the trail and I thought he looked interesting, so as we got closer I found a spot that we could observe him from. He sat on the log for us for quite awhile, then he flew over to a nearby tree for a bit and then back to the log. We think he is probably nesting in the tree.

These birds are amazing. It is pretty uncommon to see them because they are nocturnal and also very secretive and they nest singly, not in flocks like most birds. The nest is a basket of sticks in a tree, usually over water. They lay from 2 to 6 eggs,  2 days apart... the eggs hatch in about 19-25 days. Both the male and the female Green Heron incubate the eggs and feed the young. They eat fish, insects, and other invertebrates and water arthropods. A couple of other interesting tidbits... the Green Heron can hover for short periods to catch their prey. Most often, though, they sit very still on a log or in shallow water and wait for their prey to come to them. They sometimes even put a worm or twig on the top of water as bait to lure fish to them!! They are one of very few "tool using" birds in existence. Isn't that amazing?

Here are a couple of links in case you want to know more about these awesome birds...
Green Heron on All About Birds
Green Heron on Wikipedia
Green Herons on the MNDNR's Young Naturalists site

Our 3rd stop was at Meeker Island Historic Lock & Dam. The path was flooded here so we didn't get to walk too far, but it was still beautiful right down along the Mississippi River. We saw some wildflowers and flowering trees here. The history behind this place was interesting. It was the first Lock & Dam on this part of the river. It was open for 5 years and then Lock & Dam 1 was built in 1917 with hydroelectric power. It was able to handle the job of both facilities, so this one was closed and demolished. There are still some remains of it there to be seen though.

That concludes our Nature Walk Marathon.... we learned a lot, saw some very cool things, experienced some history.  We had great time too! What more could we ask for?!