Stephen Barnard again! It’s heron nesting season in Idaho, and I can’t resist putting up these photos of graceful Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias) from Idaho.
If you want to watch these birds live: Cornell has a live Blue HeronCam here, showing the birds in Ithaca, New York:
The largest of the North American herons, this bird is, of course, a fish-eater. It nests in groups, as it is trying to do in Idaho, though there’s a bald eagle nest in the middle of their colony. That naturally makes them wary! According to Stephen, an eagle chick probably hatched in the last few days, as he found a eagle-egg shell near the nest site.
Here is their distribution from the Cornell Lab Site:
Exquisite photos =)
Just, wow.
I often encounter these graceful beasts working the banks of rivers up close and personal while fly fishing here in northern Michigan (usually when coming around a well-wooded bend), and always feel an atavistic reflex thrill of fear and think, “shadow of the therapods”.
Yes, they do have an ancient way about them.
Great photos Stephen, as always.
Although blue herons do eat primarily fish, I’ve seen them chowing down on rodents as well. You can sometimes see them in meadows and fields away from water, lying in wait for a nice gopher or vole.
The other day, I saw a nature show where a heron was eating a duckling.
When we’ve had flooding in my area, I’ve seen herons going out into the fields as the water rises and grab mice that are fleeing flooded burrows.
Beautiful photos! … with the clear blue blue sky as backdrop. Wow.
These are beautiful! Truly.
I’ve never been much of a bird person but the past few years while kayaking on local lakes here in the Midwest I’ve grown to really appreciate the blue heron. “Elegant” is not necessarily a word I’d often use to describe animals but I think it truly fits these birds.
Beautiful work, as always, Stephen! It doesn’t hurt at all that the Great Blue was one of the two birds that started me on a lo-o-ong birding career, and I’ve always had a soft spot for them.
So that distribution map has me wondering: do the birds that inhabit the summer area migrate all the way to the winter area every year, or is it that they migrate south to the year round area while other birds migrate out of the year round area to the winter area?
The great blues around here have learned to eat koi out of backyard “water features”. Some of the humans around here have adapted by restocking with some type of koi or other fish that that herons don’t like.
And the photos are fantastic!
Stephen found an eagle egg shell near the nest site. I would wish he, and all, would stay far away from the nest site. Why risk disturbing them?