Startled by a Great Blue Heron on a Dog Walk

Great blue heron similar to the one we saw

This morning I (Rob) was walking our dogs through the neighborhood as usual, when the dogs all stopped and looked over at a lawn... (I took the pic of them) and a Great Blue Heron took off flapping its giant wings!  Although we're about 12 miles from the Chesapeake Bay, I don't remember ever seeing one of these huge beautiful birds. Neither have our dogs, so it was quite a surprise!
 Our Dachshund Franklin (who has caught and killed a couple of small birds) probably thought that he's met his match! 
  From Wikipedia:
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 and Central America as well as the West Indies and the Galápagos Islands.

Dolly, Franklin and Sprite wondering what kind of big bird that was!