{"id":12685,"date":"2014-01-05T04:56:18","date_gmt":"2014-01-05T11:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=12685"},"modified":"2025-08-19T10:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T15:00:10","slug":"a-great-blue-herons-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/01\/05\/a-great-blue-herons-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Blue Heron’s Gift"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GreatGreat Blue Heron’s gift – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm at 100mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday while I was reprocessing some files I had taken on January 1, 2009 I came across this Great Blue Heron image I had taken at Fort De Soto County Park<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

By January in Florida the Great Blue Herons are already going into breeding plumage,\u00a0have begun courtship displays and have started building their nests.<\/p>\n

I was walking in a wooded area on New Year’s Day and in the distance saw a Great Blue Heron flying in with a small branch in his bill but\u00a0I wasn’t able to get a clear shot until he was flying almost directly over my head because of the trees that surrounded me.<\/p>\n

After I took this\u00a0photo the male Great Blue Heron landed on a branch in a tree where the female was waiting for him and he presented his gift to her. In January the courtship of Great Blue Herons at Fort De Soto is in full swing.<\/p>\n

\"GreatGreat Blue Heron on a January day in Utah – Nikon D300, f7.1, 1\/4000, ISO 640, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 328mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This is what the Great Blue Herons are doing in Utah on our cold January days. Ah well, they will also be thinking about courtship in just a few weeks when the snow and ice melts and the days grow longer and warmer.<\/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":"

In January in Florida the Great Blue Herons are already going into breeding plumage and have begun courtship displays and have started building their nests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":152865,"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":[27,697,25,704,166,26],"tags":[4004,4117,4021,4897,4053,2419,3535,4052,4122,5833,3987,627,626,4075,4182],"class_list":["post-12685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-great-blue-herons","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-ardea-herodias","tag-bird-photography","tag-branch","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-courtship","tag-courtship-behavior","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-gift","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-nest","tag-nesting-material"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-courtship-mia-mcpherson-2406.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-3iB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10892,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/11\/20\/a-great-blue-herons-reaction-to-a-great-egrets-intrusion\/","url_meta":{"origin":12685,"position":0},"title":"Great Blue Heron’s Reaction to a Great Egret’s Intrusion","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in March of 2009 while I was photographing a Great Blue Heron on the north beach of Fort De Soto County Park in Florida a Great Egret flew in and walked close to the Great Blue Heron and me.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Squawking Great Blue Heron, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/great-blue-heron-squawking-mia-mcpherson-8140.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/great-blue-heron-squawking-mia-mcpherson-8140.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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"Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tricolored Heron hunting the Gulf of Mexico\u2019s shoreline, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/tricolored-heron-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2893.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/tricolored-heron-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2893.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/tricolored-heron-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2893.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/tricolored-heron-foraging-mia-mcpherson-2893.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/tricolored-heron-breeding-plumage-prey-mia-mcpherson-2149.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/tricolored-heron-breeding-plumage-prey-mia-mcpherson-2149.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/tricolored-heron-breeding-plumage-prey-mia-mcpherson-2149.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/tricolored-heron-breeding-plumage-prey-mia-mcpherson-2149.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8687,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/06\/23\/tricolored-heron-in-breeding-plumage-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":12685,"position":3},"title":"Tricolored Heron in Breeding Plumage","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I was digging through my image files yesterday and came across a series of Tricolored Heron images that I had never edited from a May morning in 2009 when I was photographing birds at Fort De Soto's north beach.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tricolored Heron resting after eating, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-surf-mia-mcpherson-2177.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/tricolored-heron-surf-mia-mcpherson-2177.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Warm water, a sea breeze, birds, nature and photography.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Breeding plumage Tricolored Heron in flight, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/tricolored-heron-breeding-flight-mia-mcpherson5517.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/tricolored-heron-breeding-flight-mia-mcpherson5517.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/tricolored-heron-breeding-flight-mia-mcpherson5517.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/tricolored-heron-breeding-flight-mia-mcpherson5517.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\/12685","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=12685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}