Heron takes flight

[autobotscoutriella]

I accidentally walked up on this lovely heron at the lake today (US Midwest, small man-made lake that just happens to be close enough for me to walk to), and he was obliging enough to stand still until I had a chance to get out the camera! I see a lot of birds out there every year (right now we also have ducklings, a small geese population, and a lot of red-winged blackbirds), but this is the closest I've ever gotten to one of the herons, and I thought this community might like to see him.



Fairly sure it's a great blue heron, though I'm not a bird-identifying expert.

Comments

Thanks for thinking of us!

[jesse_the_k]

A marvelous picture.

The only time I got that close to a Great Blue I was canoeing very early, and evidently I was too near a nest. The heron's legs barely cleared our heads, and we backed away very quickly. What a whoosh.

Re: Thanks for thinking of us!

[autobotscoutriella]

Thank you!

They're so much bigger up close than it seems like they would be. At first I thought he was part of a tree, and then he made eye contact! Being in a canoe next to one seems like it would be alarming, to say the least.