{"id":119530,"date":"2024-01-05T04:57:55","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T11:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=119530"},"modified":"2024-01-05T04:58:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T11:58:20","slug":"winter-great-blue-heron-on-thin-bear-river-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/01\/05\/winter-great-blue-heron-on-thin-bear-river-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Great Blue Heron On Thin Bear River Ice – Utah Is On Thin Ice Too"},"content":{"rendered":"

I photographed this Great Blue Heron almost two years ago, walking gingerly on the thinning ice of the Bear River. I was on my way to the auto tour loop at the refuge when I spotted this heron.<\/p>\n

\"WinterWinter Great Blue Heron walking in the icy Bear River \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though it was early January, the ice on the river was already getting soft and melting in places. Thanks to the climate crisis, ice melting in January in northern Utah isn’t unusual. Actually, that year there wasn’t much snow up in the mountains either, as I recall.<\/p>\n

The Great Blue Heron walked carefully on the shelf of ice on the Bear River. In front of the heron in this image, there was a soft, spongy area of ice. The heron maneuvered around that soft spot.<\/p>\n

\"GreatGreat Blue Heron falling through ice on the Bear River \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

As the heron walked east on the river, it misjudged the softness of the ice in one spot and started to fall through the ice. After this image was taken, the heron sunk a bit lower in the water and then lifted off to find more solid ice. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control, my camera lost focus on the heron, and those photos were not sharp.<\/p>\n

Seeing the heron struggling was both interesting and a bit concerning that day. I was concerned because in January, the ice should have been more stable than it was.<\/p>\n

Utah Is On Thin Ice Too<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This January, I am wondering once again about higher than normal temps, soft ice, and lack of snow cover both in the mountains and at lower elevations in northern Utah. When I was at Bear River MBR<\/span><\/a> on the 1st of January, there wasn’t as much snow on the Promontory or Wasatch Mountains, and there weren’t as many birds as there should be either.<\/p>\n

The purposefully blind Utah lawmakers on Capitol Hill, might feel real comfy pretending that climate change does not exist.<\/p>\n

But I, and other nature lovers like myself, don’t have the luxury of pretending. We see it happening in real-time.<\/p>\n

Every time we are in the field.<\/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":"

I photographed this Great Blue Heron almost two years ago, walking gingerly on the thinning ice of the Bear River. I was on my way to the auto tour loop at the refuge when I spotted this heron.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,27,1148,166,26],"tags":[4004,4117,4529,10008,3987,627,626,4064,6241,11852,5558,6329,14620,313,4236,3996,4095,373],"class_list":["post-119530","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-ardea-herodias","tag-bear-river","tag-falling","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-ice","tag-icy","tag-ranchlands","tag-river","tag-riverbank","tag-through","tag-wading-birds","tag-walking","tag-water","tag-wetlands","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/great-blue-heron-winter-bear-river-ice-mia-mcpherson-4464.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-v5U","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":98387,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/12\/22\/great-blue-heron-photos-taken-on-the-winter-solstice\/","url_meta":{"origin":119530,"position":0},"title":"Great Blue Heron Photos Taken on The Winter Solstice","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"To my delight I was able to take Great Blue Heron photos yesterday on the Winter Solstice that I found on the banks of the Bear River at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.","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":"Winter Great Blue Heron landing on a log, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, 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MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 7, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge can be a great location to take winter Great Blue Heron photos out on the frozen marshes and wetlands during January.","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 lifting off from a shelf of ice, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/great-blue-heron-lifting-off-from-ice-mia-mcpherson-0627.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/great-blue-heron-lifting-off-from-ice-mia-mcpherson-0627.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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