Stanley's adventure on the ground

One day, I arrived at the heronry to find Stanley on the ground.  He didn't appear to be injured and he showed no fear of me or my camera.

Stanley inspects his new territory.

His feathers did ruffle up once..

And he played one game of Peek-a-boo..

But he went for a walk..

Managed to get his wings together..

Tried a test flight..

Executed a shaky landing on the fence..

Stood up proudly and took a look around..

Flew back to the ground to check out a tennis game..

Showed off his beautiful yellow eye.. 

And finally took a challenging flight to a ringside seat.

(Your challenge is to find him:)

Meanwhile, Sue watched from the nest..

Remembering all the times they had hung out together.

Sydney looked on as well.  He was planning a flight soon,

and hoped to pick up a couple of tips.

That about wraps up my story of the herons for Summer 2008.  I left Stanley that day sitting on the fence watching the tennis game with what seemed to be full concentration.  The next day when I arrived, he and Sue were both gone, and Sydney was sitting quietly in his nest.  The day after that, he was gone too.  I hope and believe that the three of them are flying safely to wherever they go.