Landing Gear Up!

This is a picture of a Great Blue Heron.

It is North America's largest heron.

It grows to be 4 feet 7 inches from head to tail. Its wingspan can fall between 5 feet 6 inches and 6 feet 6 inches and it weighs about five pounds.

It is a big bird and looks even bigger when it nearly collides with your windshield. I know, because this happened to The Colonel and I the other day.

We were heading into town on a road that has a 55 mph speed limit. From this road we were going to make a left hand turn onto a residential street. To negotiate this turn successfully and safely (not taking a rouge heron into account) we would start slowing down before the turn at a given point on the road.

We came to that point and The Colonel began to apply the brakes. We slowed to roughly 35 mph when the heron chose that moment to fly right in front of the truck's windshield, narrowly escaping an impact.

The heron flew diagonally from the lower corner of the passenger side of the windshield to the upper corner of the driver's side. This all took place in a matter of seconds, but like any near miss or accident, when it is played back in your mind, goes in slow motion and all details are magnified.

The Colonel and I estimated the heron to be a mere three inches from the windshield. At that range the bird looked like a pterodactyl.

The heron was so close we could see the fear in its eyes as it retracted its landing gear (read that as extremely long legs) just in time to avoid them hitting the windshield on the driver's side.

The Colonel said the heron was so close he thought he even saw its backside (not his actual word) pucker up. I must admit the "pucker factor" was a bit elevated in the truck cab as well.

I shutter to think what would have happened if we had not chosen to slow down to turn left and proceeded straight on the road going 55 mph.

Sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're almost the bird.