Inner Turtle

Japanese ponds often feature koi (carp), while around Kyoto's various rivers it is common to spot gray herons, cranes, and egrets. While having a picnic today in the park of the Imperial Palace, we came across a large pond with koi, gray herons, and turtles.

In the past when we have seen turtles, whether in the water or out on rocks basking in the sun, they have kept to themselves. Today, however, we spotted a turtle sharing a rock with one of the gray herons, and we saw an interesting sequence of behaviors from the heron.

When we first arrived, the heron was in full meditation pose, motionless and standing on one leg:

A few minutes later, the heron seemed to get annoyed by the proximity of the turtle, and pecked at one of its exposed legs. Soon afterwards, the heron spotted a fish. It immediately forgot about the turtle and returned to motionlessness, eyes fixated on the water:

The fish ended up not getting close enough to the rock for the heron to strike. Discouraged, the heron sat down on the rock and did its best impression of a turtle, tucking in its beak and hunching its wings to produce a carapace of feathers: