I took a moment to wait and watch with the heron, unsure if it was a real one or not because it wasn't moving. And then suddenly, "PECK!" The heron snapped it's S-shaped neck out to grab a fish in the water and quickly retract.
I felt like I was watching an intense meditation. The Grey Heron brought me a moment of pause, slowing me down in the middle of a bustling city to observe its beauty.
Grey Herons are distributed all across Asia, Africa and Europe. It's incredibly rare to find them in North America and vice versa for the Great Blue Heron. More and more, Grey Herons are becoming comfortable living in urban environments, usually by moving bodies of water. You can spot them in parks, lakes and rivers inside cities! You'll see them in Germany all year round.
The most recent time I saw a Grey Heron was just a few days ago when I was visiting a friend in Schwäbisch Hall (pronounced Sh-vay-bish). It's a cute small German town in the valley of a river. Surrounded by lush green forest, the city is a blend of a rustic historic German town with nature laid between. The city center is cut in half by a river, with several mini dams and river redirections. It's at these control points, that I spotted a Grey Heron patiently waiting for fish to cross.
