{"id":11191,"date":"2013-11-26T05:26:16","date_gmt":"2013-11-26T12:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=11191"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:42:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T14:42:27","slug":"a-great-blue-heron-at-farmignton-bay-wma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/11\/26\/a-great-blue-heron-at-farmignton-bay-wma\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Blue Heron at Farmington Bay WMA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-136595 size-full\" title=\"Great Blue Heron at Farmington Bay WMA, Utah\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/great-blue-heron-winter-mia-mcpherson-3660.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/great-blue-heron-winter-mia-mcpherson-3660.jpg\" alt=\"Great Blue Heron at Farmington Bay WMA, Utah\" width=\"794\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27794%27%20height%3D%27800%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20794%20800%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27794%27%20height%3D%27800%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/great-blue-heron-winter-mia-mcpherson-3660-66x66.jpg 66w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/great-blue-heron-winter-mia-mcpherson-3660-200x202.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/great-blue-heron-winter-mia-mcpherson-3660-248x250.jpg 248w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/great-blue-heron-winter-mia-mcpherson-3660-298x300.jpg 298w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/great-blue-heron-winter-mia-mcpherson-3660-400x403.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/great-blue-heron-winter-mia-mcpherson-3660-600x605.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/great-blue-heron-winter-mia-mcpherson-3660-768x774.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/great-blue-heron-winter-mia-mcpherson-3660.jpg 794w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 794px) 100vw, 794px\" \/><span style=\"color: #888888;\">Great Blue Heron at Farmington Bay WMA<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Great Blue Herons are year round residents at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area here in northern Utah which means they deal with bitter cold, snow covered ground and icy water. Yesterday this Great Blue Heron was hunting for prey in some fairly cold water, the lowest temp I saw was 24 degrees and ice was forming on the impoundments.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-152862 size-full\" title=\"Great Blue Heron lifting off from icy water, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-3661.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-3661.jpg\" alt=\"Great Blue Heron lifting off from icy water, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah\" width=\"850\" height=\"607\" data-id=\"11189\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20607%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-3661-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-3661-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-3661-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-3661-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-3661-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-3661.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #888888;\">Great Blue Heron lifting off from icy water<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Great Blue Herons here have to be sturdy to survive the winters of Utah. This image shows some of the ice in the lower left corner just as the Great Blue Heron started to lift off to fly towards the phragmites in the marsh.<\/p>\n<p>Life <em>is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/great-blue-heron-images\/\">here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Great Blue Heron photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Great Blue Herons are year round residents at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area here in northern Utah which means they deal with bitter cold, snow covered ground and icy water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":152862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1022,697,166,26],"tags":[4004,4117,5795,3987,627,626,3970,4094,4106,313,3996,4095],"class_list":["post-11191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-great-blue-herons","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-ardea-herodias","tag-cold","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-hunting","tag-marsh","tag-prey","tag-wading-birds","tag-water","tag-wetlands"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-lift-off-mia-mcpherson-3661.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-2Uv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":49739,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/12\/09\/december-for-utah-and-florida-great-blue-herons-what-a-difference\/","url_meta":{"origin":11191,"position":0},"title":"December for Utah and Florida Great Blue Herons &#8211; What a Difference","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The lives of these Great Blue Herons sure are different when you compare December in Utah to December in Florida.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"One very cold Great Blue Heron, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/great-blue-heron-utah-winter-mia-mcpherson-0522.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/great-blue-heron-utah-winter-mia-mcpherson-0522.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/great-blue-heron-utah-winter-mia-mcpherson-0522.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/great-blue-heron-utah-winter-mia-mcpherson-0522.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7515,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/02\/13\/great-blue-herons-in-florida-and-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":11191,"position":1},"title":"Great Blue Herons In Florida And Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Great Blue Herons are year round residents in both Florida and Utah although conditions during the winter months can be starkly different for these large wading birds in the two locations and climates.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Herons nesting at Fort De Soto County Park, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/great-blue-herons-nesting-mia-mcpherson-1718.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/great-blue-herons-nesting-mia-mcpherson-1718.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/great-blue-herons-nesting-mia-mcpherson-1718.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":115878,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/09\/15\/late-summer-great-blue-heron\/","url_meta":{"origin":11191,"position":2},"title":"Late Summer Great Blue Heron","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 15, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I photographed this late summer, adult Great Blue Heron resting on a human-made nest box at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area a few days ago.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Late summer Great Blue Heron at Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/great-blue-heron-late-summer-mia-mcpherson-0460.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/great-blue-heron-late-summer-mia-mcpherson-0460.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/great-blue-heron-late-summer-mia-mcpherson-0460.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/great-blue-heron-late-summer-mia-mcpherson-0460.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":120230,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/01\/29\/great-blue-herons-at-the-farmington-bay-wma-rookery\/","url_meta":{"origin":11191,"position":3},"title":"Great Blue Herons At The Farmington Bay WMA Rookery","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 29, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday morning, I was surprised to find Great Blue Herons already at the nests of the rookery at Farmington Bay WMA. There were more than twenty herons.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Herons on the rookery at Farmington Bay WMA in January, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/great-blue-herons-rookery-utah-mia-mcpherson-3862.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/great-blue-herons-rookery-utah-mia-mcpherson-3862.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/great-blue-herons-rookery-utah-mia-mcpherson-3862.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/great-blue-herons-rookery-utah-mia-mcpherson-3862.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":65932,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/03\/01\/winter-great-blue-heron-on-ice\/","url_meta":{"origin":11191,"position":4},"title":"Winter Great Blue Heron On Ice","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This may have been my last chance this winter to photograph a Great Blue Heron on ice so I am glad I took photos of it as it landed and cautiously walked around on the ice.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron on an icy pond, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-on-ice-mia-mcpherson-3302.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-on-ice-mia-mcpherson-3302.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-on-ice-mia-mcpherson-3302.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-on-ice-mia-mcpherson-3302.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7107,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/01\/13\/great-blue-heron-winter-delight\/","url_meta":{"origin":11191,"position":5},"title":"Great Blue Heron Winter Delight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I spotted this Great Blue Heron yesterday at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area and loved the setting with the fresh snow blanketing the steep creek bank.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron on a clear winter day, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-mia-mcpherson-9335-flight.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-mia-mcpherson-9335-flight.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-mia-mcpherson-9335-flight.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}