Heron Aplenty

And an Egret, too.

It actually started with a Belted Kingfisher. Katherine whispered to me. “Across the way, there’s a Belted Kingfisher on a white pole.”

I looked. “Huh? Where?”

“Do you see a white pole?”

“Yeah, but–“

“It’s perched on top of it.”

“It is?” I looked through my viewfinder again. Ahh, there was something there. Unfortunately it was across the lagoon so it was hard for me to see. I dutifully took a few photographs.

Belted Kingfisher (female) and (bonus!) fleeing Green Heron (unknown gender)

When I downloaded the pictures, I was surprised to see a Green Heron in the photo. Had I been photobombed by a Green Heron?

If you remember from my last post, Katherine and I had come to the lagoon at Four Mile Beach hoping to see some herons. I left you hanging at the end of the post but now, we’ll see that our wish to see herons was more than fulfilled!

In no particular order, here are the herons we saw that day. First up, the Great Blue Heron!

Great Blue Heron landing among unimpressed Mallards.
Great Blue Heron hunting.

Next, a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron hiding in the reeds.

Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron
Juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron (a different one) who, though the photo can’t capture it, was, sadly, gimpy.
Though gimpy, the Black-crowned Night Heron flew easily.

We saw about three Green Herons flying about. They are pretty skittish and though Katherine was very patient as I slowly crept around the lagoon, we couldn’t get too close to them..

Green Heron perched in a tree after being frightened by our apparently less than stealthy approach.

In addition to the herons, we saw their cousin, the Great Egret. It was hunting in the lagoon near us. Unfortunately, we had to walk past it to see if we could find the Belted Kingfisher who flew off before the photo shoot was done. Katherine and I tried to walk wide of the path, but the Egret flew (pretty casually, if you ask me) off.

Great Egret Hunting

We spotted the Great Egret again at a new spot. I was able to snap a photo of him after he caught some small lagoon-dwelling creature. Katherine and I like to think we drove him to a more fruitful hunting spot.

Great Egret with a tasty morsel in his beak.

This small lagoon is a wonderful place to see the birds!

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