A Green Heron fulfills its putative fantasy

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Konrad Lorenz (1903—1989), an Austrian zoologist, shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1973 with the animal behaviorists Karl von Frisch and Nikolaas Tinbergen.

"In 1935 Lorenz described learning behaviour in young ducklings and goslings. He observed that at a certain critical stage soon after hatching, they learn to follow real or foster parents. The process, which is called imprinting, involves visual and auditory stimuli from the parent object; these elicit a following response in the young that affects their subsequent adult behaviour. Lorenz demonstrated the phenomenon by appearing before newly hatched mallard ducklings and imitating a mother duck’s quacking sounds, upon which the young birds regarded him as their mother and followed him accordingly." Link

In the 1970s I included a description of the Lorenz demonstration of the critical period in a course I was teaching. On one of the tests in the course I asked the students to "define, describe, or identify" critical period. Just now, on the web, I found this definition. "Critical period is an ethological term which refers to a fixed and crucial time during the early development of an organism when it is able to learn things which are essential to survival." But I still like the answer given by one of the students in the class - "it is the period of time in the life of a duck when it ought to stay close to its mother." "The period of time in the life of ..." is a phrase that has stuck with me.

This morning while viewing the images in this blog entry, I had the thought that if animals, other than humans, had fantasies - the faculty of imagining things that are impossible or improbable - then these photos could represent the fantasy of a Green Heron. And then I thought "this is the period of time in my life when I speculate about the fantasies of a Green Heron?"

The photos were taken at Ft. Pickens, part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, in September, 2014 from an unused, at that time, dock built to accomodate a ferry from the mainland. The dock was never used for that purpose during the time we lived in Pensacola, but it was a good place to view the activity of shorebirds and wading birds along a large segment of shoreline, information that could be used to reach a decision about the best way to walk to try to get images of the birds.

On the morning these photos were taken, I saw a fisherman dump his bait bucket on the sand and then walk with his fishing gear to his car. Shortly thereafter, the Green Heron may have actually experienced its putative fantasy.

Green Heron - September 2014
Nikon D4 with 500mm f/4 lens + 2x teleconverter
1/2500 sec at f/10, ISO 1100

Green Heron - September 2014
Nikon D4 with 500mm f/4 lens + 2x teleconverter
1/2500 sec at f/10, ISO 1250

Green Heron - September 2014
Nikon D4 with 500mm f/4 lens + 2x teleconverter
1/2500 sec at f/10, ISO 1100

Green Heron - September 2014
Nikon D4 with 500mm f/4 lens + 2x teleconverter
1/2500 sec at f/10, ISO 1100

Green Heron - September 2014
Nikon D4 with 500mm f/4 lens + 2x teleconverter
1/2500 sec at f/10, ISO 1250

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David Sparks

I retired in 2005 after 40 years of research and teaching at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (24 years), the University of Pennsylvania (8 years) and the Baylor College of Medicine (8 years). Photography is my retirement hobby.

Nature photography, especially bird photography, combines a number of things that I really enjoy: bird-watching, being outdoors, photography, travel, messing about with computers, and learning new skills and concepts.  I now spend much of my time engaged in these activities.

David Sibley in the preface to The Sibley Guide to Birds wrote "Birds are beautiful, in spectacular as well as subtle ways; their colors, shapes, actions, and sounds are among the most aesthetically pleasing in nature."  My goal is to acquire images that capture the beauty and uniqueness of selected species as well as images that highlight the engaging behaviors the birds exhibit.