{"id":117781,"date":"2023-11-03T02:29:03","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T08:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=117781"},"modified":"2023-11-03T02:32:10","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T08:32:10","slug":"great-blue-heron-in-a-natural-alcove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/11\/03\/great-blue-heron-in-a-natural-alcove\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Blue Heron In A Natural Alcove"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite photos from my trip to Bear River MBR<\/span><\/a> last Monday was of this Great Blue Heron in a natural alcove along the bank of the Bear River.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult Great Blue Heron in a natural alcove \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When I found the heron, it was on the wrong side of my Jeep\u2014the passenger side. I took this image by opening my passenger side window and leaning way over my console so I could rest the end of my lens on the window ledge. That isn’t a very comfortable stretch, not by any means.<\/p>\n

The thing is, I knew that if I opened my driver’s side door and tried to get out of my vehicle to photograph the heron, it would either move or take flight. The herons at the refuge can be that skittish.<\/p>\n

After taking this photo and a short series of images of the heron, I opened my door a crack. That was enough to make the heron very alert, so I closed it softly, turned on my Jeep, and headed west up the road. I didn’t want to scare the heron off for any other photographers who might drive on the auto tour loop behind me.<\/p>\n

Now, about this Great Blue Heron photo<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I’m quite certain that some people might not like this heron image.<\/p>\n

Some might even suggest that it would be better if the heron were fully illuminated by the light, with no part of its body in the shadows.<\/p>\n

The thing is, I like this photo because the heron isn’t in full light. I appreciate the interplay of shadows, the frosty riverbank behind the bird, the glowing phragmites, and the perfectly still water.<\/p>\n

I take my photos for myself. I always have, and I always will.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Great Blue Heron photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite photos from my trip to Bear River MBR last Monday was of this Great Blue Heron in a natural alcove along the bank of the Bear River.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":117778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[124,27,1148,166,26],"tags":[4004,14547,4117,970,4529,4620,3983,3987,627,626,4094,4059,6428,5558,4677,6326,313,3996,4095],"class_list":["post-117781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-great-blue-herons","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-alcove","tag-ardea-herodias","tag-autumn","tag-bear-river","tag-fall","tag-frost","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-marsh","tag-phragmites","tag-phrags","tag-river","tag-shadows","tag-sunlight","tag-wading-birds","tag-water","tag-wetlands"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/great-blue-heron-alcove-mia-mcpherson-6026.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-uDH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":62970,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/20\/concentrating-on-great-blue-herons-in-winter\/","url_meta":{"origin":117781,"position":0},"title":"Concentrating On Great Blue Herons In Winter","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 20, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"There were plenty of Great Blue Herons to photograph yesterday morning at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and I was more than happy to take photos of them.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron in winter at Bear River MBR, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/great-blue-heron-frozen-marsh-flight-mia-mcpherson-4283.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/great-blue-heron-frozen-marsh-flight-mia-mcpherson-4283.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Spring Great Blue Heron adult, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-marsh-spring-mia-mcpherson-5605.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-marsh-spring-mia-mcpherson-5605.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-marsh-spring-mia-mcpherson-5605.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-marsh-spring-mia-mcpherson-5605.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/great-blue-heron-winter-ice-mia-mcpherson-3169.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/great-blue-heron-winter-ice-mia-mcpherson-3169.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/great-blue-heron-winter-ice-mia-mcpherson-3169.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/great-blue-heron-winter-ice-mia-mcpherson-3169.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":121522,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/02\/19\/my-video-with-a-surprise-great-blue-heron\/","url_meta":{"origin":117781,"position":3},"title":"My Video With A Surprise Great Blue Heron","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"On my last trip up to Bear River MBR, I stopped to take a video on the auto tour loop, and a Great Blue Heron surprised me by flying into view over the river.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","block_context":{"text":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Riverbank Great Blue Heron adult, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/great-blue-heron-above-the-bear-river-mia-mcpherson-4839.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/great-blue-heron-above-the-bear-river-mia-mcpherson-4839.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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I especially loved the clearer skies.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Flying juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron with Promontory Mountains in the distance, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/black-crowned-night-heron-juvenile-flight-promontory-mia-mcpherson-2755.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/black-crowned-night-heron-juvenile-flight-promontory-mia-mcpherson-2755.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/black-crowned-night-heron-juvenile-flight-promontory-mia-mcpherson-2755.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/black-crowned-night-heron-juvenile-flight-promontory-mia-mcpherson-2755.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117781","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=117781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}