A stunning yellow crowned night heron fishing in the flooded creek

Here in Austin much of our precious rain arrives in the spring. April and May 2019 were good months for rain and, after a storm, the normally dry creek at the bottom of the yard turned into a real creek and ran for about a week. When there’s water in the creek it teems with life - frogs, apparently-instant tadpoles, crawfish, and tiny darting minnows. On the evening of May 4th, a yellow-crowned night heron arrived to try its luck at fishing. A truly gorgeous bird. It stayed all night, searching the waters for supper, but was unsuccessful. Turns out it was one day too early; by the following evening the fish and crawdads had arrived - washed down from upstream. Night herons are a little unusual in the Austin area but they migrate through on their journey from Mexico and Central America, where they normally over-winter. Also appearing in the video are some frogs. Their eyes shine in the camera’s infrared and they’re easy to spot and zoom in on. For more great critter videos and photos please visit #AustinWildlife #WildlifeVideos #BackyardWildlife #TexasBackyardWildlife