Karen Jacobs Cook’s GBH Photo

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The younger of my Mom’s two brothers had two daughters, Karen Sue and Debbie. Karen is a year older than I. Life took all of us in different directions. Decades had passed since we last communicated. Early this past spring, Karen and I found each other on LinkedIn. I had no clue that Karen had discovered photography, particularly nature and wildlife. Her company: “My Shot Photographs, LLC” in Daytona Beach, Florida. Her work: stunning! She had no idea that life had led me to higher education leadership and Great Blue Heron, LLC. We delighted in our independent alignment — a correspondence; a divine providence in the view of Emanuel Swedenborg. Karen kindly sent me her exquisite “Elegant Flight,” a great blue heron flying gracefully along a Florida waterway.

 

I just retrieved the photo from the local frame shop, hanging it prominently on my Fairmont State University president’s office wall. Elegant Flight will accompany me back to Alabama after my Interim Presidency, where he will reside in my GBH, LLC office. I have always preferred paintings that look like photos, and photos that seem to be paintings. Elegant Flight fools people — they think it’s a painting!

Life is an amazing journey, much like the many trails I have hiked, run, or cycled over the decades. Each twist and turn offers new vistas, experiences, and lessons. As Robert Frost so beautifully penned, “Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.” Way did lead on to way for cousin Karen Sue and me, and rather than diverge in a yellow wood, our roads converged in a great blue heron’s magnificent flight.

Had we not been alert to the world around us, we might never had made our re-connection nor discovered the alignment of interests and pursuits. It’s uncanny that our paths crossed via a great blue heron, my deceased Dad’s totem. Perhaps Dad played some role in guiding our paths to this point of convergence. Judy and I are eager to reunite with Karen Sue and Gary!

Drop me a note if you care to see Karen’s inventory of photos. I will pass along your contact information.

Big Blue’s First Quarter 2017

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Observing nature clears my head and allows me to glean lessons for harnessing Nature’s wisdom and inspiration. Nature informs and inspires my consulting, stimulates my writing, and furnishes endless vignettes and anecdotes for motivational speaking.

We moved permanently into our new home in Madison, AL end of June 2016. Christmas 2016, our then 8-year-old grandson Jack gave me a Bird Watching and Other Nature Observations Journal. I immediately dubbed it my journal of Observations from Big Blue Lake, named after our resident great blue heron. I began journaling January 1, focusing on Big Blue’s comings and goings, yet not limited to him.

Drafting the 13 essays in Nature Based Leadership, my first book, I discovered that writing requires far deeper thinking than talking. In fact, and I’ve occasionally been guilty myself, I’ve had some verbal interactions when it soon became obvious that one of us was barely engaging the mind! Writing is far more demanding. Journaling requires a lot — I hand-write mine, which means the more concise and clear I can be, the fewer words I must record.

Today I re-read journal entries through March 31. Wow, a quick and cogent reminder that life can be pretty exciting on a four-acre lake in northern Alabama! Of course, Big Blue head-lined the quarter. See the photo of him fishing at our willow clump. We saw him 26 of January’s 31 days, including the final 12 consecutive days. January 2, 26, and 28 he stayed near our shore most of the day. Over the month we witnessed four successful fish catches. On the 17th and 21st two great blues appeared at one time, reminding me that we cannot be certain that Big Blue is a single bird we see repeatedly. Our resident may be more than one.

February we spotted him (I’ll stick with the image of a single resident) 19 days, and saw him make two unsuccessful plunges for prey. February 24 we once again saw two herons at once. March brought 19 observations during the 28 days we were home. We saw no doubles. We witnessed a single fish catch, along with a spectacular empty dive from shore!

February 2, two hooded mergansers appeared — and stayed with us every day through March 21. I did not see them March 22, or any day after. When in residence, they floated, paddled, and dived continuously across the lake. some days we saw two and three pairs of male and female. One day seven toured the lake. I suppose with the equinox they departed for points north.

I’ve noted often that autumn here in the South slowly, blessedly, deliciously transitions to spring. Winter comes only as a day or two here and there. We reached a low of six degrees just once. Ice covered two-thirds of the lake two mornings. March 12 looked a little like winter with a coating of snow. Just 15 days later a spring evening thunderstorm set the stage for a glorious double rainbow!

Our resident Canada geese began getting aggressively territorial by mid-March, with what I assumed to be the males of two pairs chasing away all other intruders. By late-March bullfrogs were bellowing and red winged blackbird males posting, posturing, and singing loudly.

All of Nature ebbs and flows with the seasons. I will enjoy beginning anew next January. I want to learn the rhythms. Our lives and enterprises likewise follow seasonal shifts, cycles, and patterns. We can anticipate, respond, and adapt only when we take time to learn the patterns. Great Blue Heron strives to help clients look (really look) to actually see, understand, and anticipate the trends affecting them. We urge those we touch to look and see deeply enough to generate feelings. Day-to-day and in aggregate, the rhythms and patterns reveal themselves, and inform our decisions. The feelings spur us to action — actions that enrich and lift the individual and the enterprise.

Great Blue Heron specializes in Harnessing Nature’s Wisdom and Inspiration.

 

Big Blue Has Adopted Us!

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Big Blue, the great blue heron that is resident to our small lake here in northern Alabama, is spending more and more time with us. Our home sits 50 feet above water level on the north shore. Our shore-line vegetation includes three willow clumps, which I have lopped to eight feet — that’s as far as I can reach. Big Blue is spending hours a day (six, three, and ten hours, respectively, these past three days) standing in the near-shore water at the largest of the three willow clumps. This one is about ten feet across. Why there?

A cold front swept through last evening. Cold is relative — what is cold in north Alabama is down-right warm compared to January in Fairbanks, AK, where we lived 2004-08. Today never made it to 50 degrees with a brisk northwesterly wind. So again, why is he adopting this particular spot? The willow clump cut the breeze hitting Big Blue as he basked in the bright sunshine warmly bathing his southern exposure. The willow also prevented any land-dwelling predator from rushing him. Another reason he prefers our end of the lake is that we and our near-neighbors have no dogs. Well, our neighbor to the east does have what I refer to as a diminutive pretend dog. Some large dogs live on the south end, quite noisy when out. I would guess very threatening even though fenced. And finally, I imagine from his fish prey’s perspective, the willow behind him masks his image. So, all in all, a great place to spend the day.

I revel in seeing him comfortable near our home. I can only hope that this is more than a passing fancy.

As I contemplate future Big Blue Blogs, I list several topics for exploration. First, can I be sure there is just this one Big Blue, and not a series of great blue herons I cannot distinguish one from another? We’re trying to catalog sightings with photos. I refer to Big Blue in the masculine — how can I be sure? I call this four-acre body of water a lake — I will delve into the difference between a lake and a pond. Other ideas will come to me.

A Banner Big Blue Day

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Judy and I walked pre-dawn this morning. We often see Big Blue standing knee-deep at the neck that reaches north to near the road just east of our home. Illuminated by the street lamp, he stood there once more. I suppose we appeared too suddenly — he spooked to the south, quickly disappearing into the darkness.

Ninety minutes later post-breakfast, we went out to the patio with coffee mugs in-hand. Big Blue stood on the near-east shore, likely seeking his own breakfast. We watched him for thirty minutes, including a lake-exit and stroll up the grassy slope. We all three heard thunder rumbling to the south and southwest, inexorably approaching. Radar depicted a meso-scale convective complex lifting to the ENE, fueled by an upper disturbance and loaded with Gulf moisture. Big Blue took flight and headed to the second pond as the rain became steadier.

We also watched a kingfisher alternate between two perches, rattling occasionally and constantly making forays into the water. More than a dozen geese also entertained us, chatting and bugling constantly, making a great deal of noise and creating quite a disturbance on the water. A sharp bolt of lightning sent Judy inside. Shortly thereafter, another great blue heron appeared in the SE, bee-lining it at 100 feet altitude above the lake and rooftops toward the WNW. By then the rain intensified, thunder pounded, and a fresh breeze brought sheets of rain under the patio roof. Even I sought shelter indoors.

We returned home from our daughter’s at sunset. Big Blue awaited us at the base of our lot, standing at a small willow clump. He was as close as he could be. He spooked as I walked onto the patio, once more flying just above the water’s surface to the second pond. Twenty minutes later, at deep dusk, he came back, landing on the near-east shore. We could see him only another five minutes before darkness obscured him.

A banner Big Blue day. Four sightings of our resident Big Blue and a fly-over by another. Add in the Canada geese and the kingfisher, as well as mallards, mourning doves, crows, killdeer, red-wing blackbirds, and house finches, and it was just a great day.

Steve’s Big Blue Blog

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My Great Blue Heron web site went live earlier this week. I am testing the posting function.

The great blue heron for me is both totem and talisman, a palpable spiritual connection to my deceased father. Dad inspired my love of Nature and propelled me into my lifelong passion for applying Nature’s Wisdom to living, learning, serving, and leading.

We live on a small lake in northern Alabama’s Tennessee River Valley. We have a resident great blue heron: Big Blue. So far we have seen him 14 of 2017’s first 19 days.

Please view this posting as my brief introduction to Steve’s Big Blue Blog.

Warm regards,

Steve