Here you see a young great blue heron fishing in Patton Bay on Saturday. He may decide to take his chances and not migrate south for the winter, A few GBHs have been overwintering here in recent years as the weather has become warmer and cove waters have not been icing-over completely.
These painfully thin birds are very tough and self-reliant. Great blues are built like spears and have few qualms about fighting a bald eagle on the ground for a dead fish. They can thrust with their pointed bills and do real harm, while the eagle has to stand on his best weapons. In the air, however, the eagle has the advantage.
(Images taken in Surry, Maine, on October 24, 2026; sex assumed.)