Embracing What's Common on Racquette River

Driving over one of the many Racquette River bridges,
something caught my eye...

Yesterday I made the ten hour drive (five out and five back) to deliver my son to the Elite Distance Running Camp at the U.S. Olympic Center in Lake Placid, N.Y. Unfortunately, I did not have the luxury of stopping to hike or loiter too long as I'll be hitting the road early tomorrow morning for another college visit, this time in Boston, Ma., with my stepson. Despite the necessity of a quickened pace, and as always seems to be the case whether passing through or hiking peaks, there was much to be seen albeit primarily through the glass.

On the winding road home, I passed over the Racquette River a few times, and in doing so kept my eyes open (and on the road) for a shadow or hint of a common subject: a heron. A relatively frequent visitor to this part of the Adirondack region, I fondly recall coming across herons here in the past. My attempts to spot one again paid off when the fellow in the top image popped briefly into my peripheral vision. At that point I took the time to pull over to one of the many observation areas and snap a few pics and linger briefly.

This is what makes this bird ubiquitous...it seems to be everywhere!

Much like my habit of taking pictures of stills of American Robins in my backyard at home or photographing rabbits on the neighbor's lawn, I guess I just have an affinity for those "things" that are seemingly always around. I feel fortunate that I can add the heron (whether on the road or in my neighborhood) to the list of ubiquitous (defined as "existing or being everywhere, especially at the same time; omnipresent") creatures within my scope of living.