Birds and more birds

Great blue heron

Although I love taking pictures of birds I don’t often patiently set out to find and photograph them. On our recent trip to California we went to the Mad River Hatchery, a place teeming with tiny fish being raised to stock rivers and lakes for sport fishermen and -women. So where else would a smart fish-eating bird choose to hang out? This great blue heron was one of three handsome birds that decided to have an easy meal at the Mad River buffet. In fact, it flew up into a nearby tree where I suspect it had a nest.

Great egret

This great egret was either fairly tame or too full to rouse itself to fly away. It let me get somewhat close without being alarmed.

Night heron

I haven’t seen a lot of night herons in the wild and have never managed to get close. This one stayed calmly perched as I approached and took its portrait.

9 thoughts on “Birds and more birds”

  1. Three wonderful portraits! I especially love the first one … I don’t think I’ve ever seen one like it!

    BTW, you are a very funny person! #6 indeed! 🙂

  2. We see the blue herons here- they’re one of my favourite birds, just the way they seem so focused when fishing.

  3. Ohhhhhhhhhh fabulous – and another of our favorite spots to visit – it was just about a mile from our house on West End Road (you had to pass West End Road to get to the hatchery). We often picked blackberries there and our youngest daughter learned to drive on that road. Those boulders beside the road into the hatchery often had me shouting – LEFT – GO LEFT, as she tended to drive too far to the right at first.

    The photos are super wonderful – love the one of the heron flying – I’ve not gotten one so close as that – super great!

  4. Me again – one time we saw a fox with a bunch of baby foxes crossing the road into the hatchery. First the dad went across the road – then the mom followed with all the babies – somewhere I have a picture of them. I am really enjoying your views of our old area – we lived there just before we moved here in 2001.

  5. When I moved to Florida, where herons and egrets are everywhere, I thought they were southern birds. Since then, I have seen them in just about every state I have been in. The night heron, though, is less common.

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