Great blue herons have keen eyesight and can spot incredible things in a salt marsh. They’re always searching for food. Can you become a curious heron and discover some of the neat things in the marsh?¹¹ Can you find heron food? If you are really clever, you’ll figure out a heron’s favourite food.

Herons are blue and gray with black feather plumes above their eyes. Put on the proper colours:

• Paint black “eyebrows” on your forehead.
• Paint blue and gray streaks on your face.
• Wear your blue or gray clothes.

Their call is: “Quonk! Quonk! Quonk!” Try it.

This special oath can help you change into a heron. Take turns kneeling before the tree and repeat these magic words:

“With heron legs I want to walk.

With heron eyes I’ll see.

With a heron voice instead of talk.

A great blue heron I’ll be.”

Do the heron pounce to find small neat creatures on the ground:

1. Drop suddenly to the ground.
2. Push the leaves aside and search with your keen eyes.
3. Examine what you find. Would you eat it?

Try using your sharp heron eyes. They take big, slow steps and use their telescopic eyesight to find prey. Use your heron scope to help you find the things below. Take 50 big, slow steps up the trail and search for the first thing on the list. Take 50 more steps and search for the next thing, and so on.

• something yellow
• a red leaf
• a broken-off tree
• something shiny
• something that prickles
• a plant with red berries
• needles that smell like Christmas
• a piece of litter (pick it up and place in receptacles at trailhead)
• a cone
• a tree with green hairy stuff on it

Continue looking for these things as you fly further up the trail.

This is where the great blue heron lives. As an important marsh creature, make a big show strutting home:

1. Lift your right foot high into the air and then place it down again.
2. Do the same for your left foot.
3. Bob your head back and forth as you walk.

As a curious heron, check to see what the other birds are up to. Use your scope or binoculars. How many different birds can you see? Stop here to experience a salt marsh delicacy. It’s a hearty stew that gives the marsh its special smell. Take out your stew pot and follow this recipe (but watch out for poison ivy):

marsh stew recipe

1. Put in four different types of seaweed or dead plant material.
2. Add a handful of mud.
3. Fill your pot halfway with salty broth.
4. Drop in a shell.
5. Stir it well and then sniff. What a marsh smell!
6. Take turns trading and smelling each other’s stews.

Empty the stew for other creatures to enjoy when you’re finished. Take your stew pot with you.

Did you find a small periwinkle shell to add to your stew? Herons sometimes eat them. Look for one on the ground. Pretend to pounce on it and spear it with your beak. Good stuff!

Herons sometimes look for food in the water. Use your sharp eyes to search for neat things with your underwater viewer.

1. Take off your shoes and socks and roll up your pants.
2. Slowly and carefully wade in and bend over at the waist.
3. Push the covered end of the underwater viewer into the water.
4. Don’t push it in so far that water comes over the edge.
5. Bring your head down to the viewer and have a good look.
6. Search for five neat looking creatures – an expert can find eight.

Draw one neat thing you saw in your Adventure Journal.

Can you hunt for food like a heron? Do some silent stalking. If you stand very still for a couple of minutes, creatures think you are a tree or a plant. They come closer so you can have a good look at them. Have everyone stand very still and silent for two minutes.

Did a creature come close while you were standing still? Sometimes herons freeze in different positions so their prey won’t see them. Try being heron statues:

1. Assign someone to stand on the shore in front of the bench as the prey.
2. Everyone else plays herons and spreads out near the water’s edge.
3. The prey turns away while the herons get into a neat position.
4. The prey turns around suddenly and tries to catch a heron moving.
5. Each time the prey turns away, the herons change position.
6. The first heron caught moving trades places with the prey.

Now search for real heron food at the water’s edge. Turn over a few rocks or look under some seaweed. Crouch down and look carefully for a nice plump crayfish (a mini lobster-like creature) or little worms. Make sure you put the rocks back just as you found them. Do the heron pounce and pretend to spear a crayfish with your beak. Mmm!

Herons build their nests high up in trees out of sticks and dead plant material. These nests are like sculptures. Can you build a neat heron sculpture out of dead stuff along the trail?

1. Collect dead pieces of grass, small sticks and neat looking rocks.
2. Search for material between the bridge and the wider spot on the trail about 30 m past the bridge.
3. Build a fantastic nest sculpture no taller than two fists.
4. Share your sculptures.

This bridge is a good place to observe the marsh. Watch the swirling water as it flows under the bridge. Are there differences in the patterns on either side? Is the tide coming in or going out?

Herons build their nests in very tall trees. Use your scope to scan for a nesting site in a distant tree. Herons nest in colonies of more than 100 pairs. Could you find your eggs in such a large colony? Try this:

1. Each heron finds an egg-shaped rock the size of a fist. (Remember where you found it.)
2. Get to know its colour, shape and texture (how it feels).
3. Put all the “eggs” in a pile and mix them up well.
4. Find your egg again.

Now find your eggs in the dark: place all the eggs in a pile. Close your eyes and find yours by touch alone. Take turns and mix up the eggs each time.

Could you find your own egg this way?

Other herons and gulls will eat heron eggs. Hide your egg from the other herons.

1. Decide on two hiding areas, one on each side of the bridge.
2. Half of the group hides their eggs on one side and half on the other.
3. Eggs must be fully visible and not covered by rocks or debris.
4. Search for each other’s eggs.

Does the egg’s placement and colouring make a difference? That is one way birds hide their eggs from predators. Finish by making a little nest for your egg using dead seaweed. When you are finished, be sure to return your rock to where you found it.

Still hungry? The heron’s favourite food is often resting in the shallows below the bridge. Find the shallowest section under the bridge. Look for these creatures swimming at the edges of the rocks below the bridge on either side. Staying on the bridge, do the heron pounce and pretend to spear the mystery food with your beak. Gulp!

Have you figured out a heron’s favourite food? The answer is on the hidden plaque on something wooden made by people. Use the side of your pencil or crayon to make a rubbing of it in your Adventure Journal. Take a favourite picture of the marsh and post it if you choose.

The plaque symbol is:

Congratulations, you have been a very curious heron! Use your curiosity to explore other neat natural places. If you are feeling ambitious and energetic, the Cole Harbour Salt Marsh trail extends for 6.5 km!