One of the pleasures of living on the banks of the Chattahoochee river is the daily relationship you get to have with the wildlife that occupy the same territory.  This week, during an unseasonably warm summer's day in mid-winter, fishermen dot the river:  the human kind, with their innertube outfits and fly rods, and the winged variety. 

The blue herons have had a couple of good years lately, and the pair of birds that were seen flying together last summer had babies, which now are almost grown.  This week the five or six birds in this one heron family are cavorting over the river, playing chase, circling and wheeling low over the water in tandem.  It's an amazing sight.  While those herons play, their sibling stands quietly in the shallow rapidly flowing water near the bank, fishing for hours on end.  Nothing to do but wait for that shiny tasty fish.

It's a bird's life!