The Great Blue Herons are busy preparing for nesting and raising new families. Looking good and showing off in the evening. . . .
Nest-building duties in the morning. . . . 
The Great Blue Herons are busy preparing for nesting and raising new families. Looking good and showing off in the evening. . . .
Nest-building duties in the morning. . . .
Thanks for sharing these wonderful shots! I especially like the one with the heron’s head thrown back. We’ll have to wait five months or so before our GBHs start to nest, so these are nice in the meantime.
I hope ours continue to thrive. Their nesting trees have slowly but surely been taken over in recent years by Wood Storks, and the Wood Storks are very bossy!
Your season begins as ours ends. I’ll be following along😊. Wonderful photos, I particularly like the second one!
The lighting wasn’t great on either of these two days, evening, or morning. But they are very active, so I hope to get more shots soon.
Nice collection! The GBH are a joy to watch as they go through their rituals.
Yes, they truly are, Ellen. I love to watch them ‘behind the scenes’ in the woods, testing out which sticks to bring back to the nest.
Ours is about to start in a month and I live by a Rookery !! Can’t wait.
Nothing better than living by a rookery during nesting season! 😊 so much activity!
Magnificent creatures, aren’t they!?
Yes they really are! So massive and yet so graceful. I love it when they fly right by at eye level and you can feel the whoosh of their huge wings.
Reminds me of a prehistoric pterodactyl!
Haha. Yes, definitely!!
Fantastic captures Carol! The GBH is one of my favorites to photograph. 🙂
Mine, too, HJ. They’re so beautiful and so photogenic, and they glide so nice and slowly in flight. Much easier than capturing a shot of a speedy little warbler!
Such majestic and beautiful birds. I am a big fan of the GBH too. Beautiful photography as always ❤
I really appreciate your visit and your kind comments! I’m hoping to see lots more of the GBH’s over the coming months.
Nice set of shots!
Thank you so much, Kathy!
I want to feel like that bird taking flight….
Yes..!! I know just what you mean, Cyndi!
Gorgeous series, Carol, looking forward to more! 🙂
Thank you very much, Donna! We traveled up north into Central Florida this past weekend and saw more beautiful great blue heron‘s. I think ours will be around here in Palm Beach County for many weeks to come.
Is the upward-pointing head shown in the second photograph a characteristic gesture for this species? I’ve seen grackles do that fairly often.
Yes, it’s a very common part of the sequence of gestures in the mating rituals for herons and egrets of all kinds. It’s a treat to sometimes see several shiny blue-black male Grackles pointing their heads upward, vying with one another for the females’ attention, too.
Thanks for taking me there!
I’m so glad you could come along and see these beauties. More to come soon.