As geocachers, we often spend a lot of time looking down. As you go after this cache, be sure to look up, up, up into the trees around you. You will see heron nesting colonies at the tops of the nearby eucalyptus and pines.
Heron is a name given to a common large wading bird family, including the great and little blue heron, the yellow crowned heron, the black crowned night heron, the green heron, the bittern and the egret. You'll recognize them in flight with their necks folded back on their shoulders, unlike their distant relatives the cranes and ibis which fly with necks straight out. Their plumage is soft and drooping, espcially at breeding season (March through June) and many, like the snowy egret, have long feathery plumes on the head, breast and back. They hunt for fish both day and night, at times by standing motionless in the shallows, sometimes walking slowly through the water with neck stretched out waiting to spear a fish, or by flying close to the water and dip-fishing.
In the past, many of these birds were hunted aggresively and killed in large numbers just for their feathers, but most species of heron that are listed as endangered or threatened now are in jeopardy primarily because of loss of habitat. Herons are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.