I was thrilled to spot a Yellow-crowned Night Heron yesterday morning at Sequoyah NWR, and even more thrilled to photograph the night heron with a crawdad.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron eating a crawdad, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, OklahomaYellow-crowned Night Heron eating a crawdad – Canon R7, handheld, f7.1, 1/250, ISO 1600, Canon EF 100-400mm II at 255mm, natural light

I’ve seen these night herons at the refuge infrequently, but never this close and never eating a crawdad. And it wasn’t just one. The heron caught and ate more than one crayfish.

Thankfully, the second time I photographed this wading bird with a crawdad yesterday morning, it moved out toward the gravel road at the Lower Scarborough Slough. That meant I had a nice background in this photo.

I’ve photographed this wading bird species with crustaceans before in Florida, mainly Ghost and Fiddler Crabs along the shore of the Gulf of Mexico.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron close up at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, OklahomaYellow-crowned Night Heron close up at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge – Canon R7, handheld, f7.1, 1/250, ISO 1600, Canon EF 100-400mm II at 400mm, natural light

After the Yellow-crowned Night Heron ate the crawdad I walked a little closer, zoomed in, and took a few portraits of the heron. As infrequently as I see and photograph this species of heron, I wanted to take as many images of this one as I could.

It’s my understanding that these herons used to be seen in larger numbers and more frequently at the refuge before the flooding event in 2019.

Crawdad on the road, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, OklahomaCrawdad on the road – Canon R7, handheld, f9, 1/200, ISO 1600, +0.3 EV, Canon EF 100-400mm II at 400mm, natural light

Later yesterday morning on the road to the Sandtown Bottoms area of the refuge, I found a crawdad in the road and jumped out to photograph it. I took images of another crayfish in that same area in 2023 with my dear friend Steve Creek and had great fun. Steve and I had fun with this crawdad yesterday too!

And then, the reason for our stop was to move the crawdad off the road so it wouldn’t get squished. We do that for turtles and crawdads!

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my Yellow-crowned Night Heron photos plus facts and information about this species. Click here to see more of my Crayfish photos plus facts and information about them.