Of course they do. They have six - one for each of their legs. Bees have a femur and a tibia in each leg just like us - and the joint in between is a knee - just like us. But this is a bird blog, not a bee blog, so what about birds? Take a look at this great blue heron. He seems to have knees, but they seem to be “on backwards” - right? If you said “right,” you’d be in good company, but you’d still be wrong. Even the venerable Scientific American magazine got this wrong in an article about turkey tendons. This great blue heron like most other birds and many mammals have knees that work just like ours, but in the case of birds, the knees are hidden up under the wing feathers close to their body. The “backwards” joint that you see in this photo is actually the ankle. The same is true of your dog or your cat or your pet giraffe, but not the bear at your bird feeder.

Great blue herons are digitigrade animals meaning they walk on their toes (like dogs, cats, and giraffes). We humans, except perhaps the ballerinas among us, are plantigrade animals, walking on our whole foot (all 26 bones, 33 joints, and a hundred muscles, ligaments and tendons). But, before I begin complaining about my knees, let’s get back to the great blue heron.

The foregoing was actually a test of your patience and tenacity. Because the great blue herons have mastered these skills. You have only to watch one standing like the one above, waiting for a tasty morsel to swim by for lunch. In fact, as a further test of your patience, see if you can watch this video from beginning to end. Talk about mindfulness! Could you do that every day? Well, the human fishermen among you probably understand.

At the Venice Rookery in — Get thee to a rookery!

Herons always prefer to hunt and dine alone. In fact, if you have a koi pond in your yard, a life-sized replica of a heron will repel real herons looking for solitary hunting. But when it comes to nesting and raising young, herons prefer company - sometimes a lot of company - in a group called a heronry or, in more general terms, a rookery, where dozens of birds often of different species nest together in a small area.

Great blue herons are the largest herons of North America with a height of over 4 feet and wingspan often over 6 feet. Herons are not as numerous as starlings or house sparrows, but they are certainly as widespread. East of the Rocky Mountains, they tend to migrate in winter towards Florida and the Caribbean, while in the far west they tend to remain throughout the year.

Their majesty on land and in flight should make the plantigrades and digitigrades and even the bees among us feel weak in the knees.

Heron Rises from the Dark, Summer Pond - Mary Oliver

So heavy
is the long-necked, long-bodied heron,
always it is a surprise
when her smoke-colored wings
open
and she turns
from the thick water,
from the black sticks
of the summer pond,
and slowly
rises into the air
and is gone.
Then, not for the first or the last time,
I take the deep breath
of happiness, and I think
how unlikely it is
that death is a hole in the ground,
how improbable
that ascension is not possible,
though everything seems so inert, so nailed
back into itself–
the muskrat and his lumpy lodge,
the turtle,
the fallen gate.
And especially it is wonderful
that the summers are long
and the ponds so dark and so many,
and therefore it isn’t a miracle
but the common thing,
this decision,
this trailing of the long legs in the water,
this opening up of the heavy body
into a new life: see how the sudden
gray-blue sheets of her wings
strive toward the wind; see how the clasp of nothing
takes her in.