Shikepokes

Can you find the shikepoke in the picture?

I spotted one this morning while walking the dog.  He/she was good enough to be still for a photo op.

Living near the water for the past 25 years or so, well, I've seen a lot of them but didn't really bother to look up much information on them, so did some reading this morning.  I won't bore you as you can look it up yourself.

One thing that did catch my eye was the slang for a heron is "shikepoke", possibly because when they are flushed from where they are, they poop (to put it nicely).  In the musical "Oklahoma" that term is used in the first act (Carnes says it to the Peddler Ali Hakim)  and I thought it was  the word "shy-poke" as a form of cowpoke or scardy-cat.but now I know better. I have an old script from the show so if I find it I'll look it up.

So there you go. Trivia for the water cooler.