Saw one standing along side the road while I was still in high school. Thought it odd that, one, it wasn't near water, and two, it didn't fly as I passed by. So I turned around and went to investigate. Walked right up to it and picked it up. It was obviously distressed, but I couldn't find any external damage.
I put in the car and drove to my girlfriends house, where I retrieved the bird as I got out of the car. All the family that was home at the time came out to see the heron. As I was standing there holding bird, it did nothing more than watch everyone. Except my girlfriends brother. The heron evidently didn't like the looks of said brother, and promptly speared him in the head with the pointy end of the beak, it's mouth open about a half inch. It must have hurt a bit since I thought I saw a puff of smoke from around the area of the furious rubbing.
Friend of mine had one caught in a muskrat trap. Since the sensible thing to do was / is illegal, he decided to throw his coat over it and release it. Damn thing speared him right in the eye, ruptured the eyeball, permanently blinded in his right eye.
