Great Blue Heron at the Falls Poster

A Great Blue Heron waits for fish at the Watts Mill falls on Indian Creek in Kansas City, Missouri. The falls are in an idyllic park, where many birds find refuge from the busy city that surrounds it. The park was a campsite for people heading out on the Oregon, California and Santa Fe Trails. The Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North America and Central America as well as the Caribbean and the Galapagos Islands. A gristmill commonly known as the Watts Mill (first known as Fitzhugh's Mill) stood on the north bank of Indian Creek where the stream flowed across flat rocks and tumbled over a waterfall. This location, in the shady wooded area of 103rd Street and State Line, was dedicated June 10, 1974, as a historic site.