First, a request: I have some photographs of the Continental Divide, taken during a hike in the Rockies, along with some lichen pictures. Unfortunately, I sometimes lose the reader’s information and email, so if you sent me these, could you please drop me a note with the information? Thanks.
Today reader Joe Dickinson from Santa Cruz, California has some nice bird photos. His notes:
About two weeks ago, runoff from the first significant storm of the season breached a sandbar that had been blocking the mouth of Aptos Creek for several months, flushing out stagnant water and exposing mudbanks that had accumulated behind the dam. Since then, there has been a marked influx of birds, particularly waders. I’m used to seeing two or three night herons pretty regularly and one or two egrets occasionally in the 200 yards or so up from the beach. The day after the washout, I counted eight night herons and a dozen egrets of two species. More recently, a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) showed up, the first I’ve seen in that location. He (?) gave a particularly fine “performance” a few days ago, and that is the focus of this set of photos (with a few others thrown in just because I like them).
Here is our particularly handsome main subject,
thinking about a strike,
Just after a strike:
shaking himself like a wet dog,
and in an unusual pairing with a Western Gull (Larus occidentals).
This is one of the Snowy Egrets (Egreta thule), perched almost in the same spot a few days earlier:
and a Great Egret (Ardia alba) at the same location the day after I photographed the heron. I may have noted previously that this species is placed in the same genus as the blue heron, not the other egret, so the heron/egret distinction apparently is popular, not scientific.
Finally, an artistic grouping of Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus), again same location,
. . . and this Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) seen at Neery Lagoon over in Santa Cruz. I like the background provided by reeds (rushes?) and their reflections.
All very gorgeous pictures. I especially like the Grebe, one of my favorites. It’s diving and swimming abilities are amazing. And it has such a cute round head.
Not to mention their adorable little fluffy white tails! 🙂
Very good. I had read somewhere, perhaps on this site, that the Blue heron is especially wary and so it is hard to get good close-ups. In any case, congratulations on these very good pictures.
Extraordinary detail on the heron Gorgeous. Well lit. Well done.
Great heron photos.
So did the washout allow more fish to swim up Aptos Creek? Just curious as to why the washout created the birdphilic conditions.
And speaking of Santa Cruz, is the Boardwalk still operating and/or the Giant Dipper? I always loved that wooden roller coaster, and it’s the first that I ever experienced.
I think it was the exposed mudbanks that attracted the waders. Meanwhile, the sand bar is back, the mudbanks are covered and we’re back down to a few night herons and one egret. And yes, the Boardwalk with “Dipper” is still here, open summer and weekends(?).
Nice set of photographs. That rock must be a premium piece of bird real-estate.
Great bird photos of great birds! 🙂
As you’re no doubt aware, your Great Blue Heron is an immature, hatched this past spring, as we can tell by its striped neck/breast/belly.
I love the heron & gull capture!
I believe ‘rush’ is usually used to describe plants in the genus Juncus which tend to be spiky plants with a ‘clumpy’ growth form. ‘Reed’ is usually applied to Phragmites australis (common reed) as well as occasionally to other emergent aquatic grass-like species which form extensive monospecific stands of tall swamp vegetation including Typha (cat-tails), Cyperus (sedges) and Glyceria. I don’t think the vegetation in the Pied-billed Grebe photo is a rush but it is difficult to see what it actually is.
Forgot to say – super pictures of the herons and egrets! Do you have any pictures of the Night Herons?
I’ve posted a number of night herons from this location in the past, better than anything I got recently, so I did not include them this time. You may be able to search Jerry’s site to find the older ones.