{"id":136037,"date":"2024-10-29T02:46:26","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T07:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=136037"},"modified":"2025-09-20T16:34:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T21:34:57","slug":"great-blue-heron-on-a-gray-autumn-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/10\/29\/great-blue-heron-on-a-gray-autumn-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Blue Heron On A Gray Autumn Day"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I photographed this Great Blue Heron two days ago when the autumn sky was gray with clouds on Sally Jones Lake at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fws.gov\/refuge\/sequoyah\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge<\/span><\/a> in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-136034 size-full\" title=\"Adult Great Blue Heron on a gray autumn day\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-gray-fall-day-mia-mcpherson-4297.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-gray-fall-day-mia-mcpherson-4297.jpg\" alt=\"Adult Great Blue Heron on a gray autumn day, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma\" width=\"900\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20643%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27643%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-gray-fall-day-mia-mcpherson-4297-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-gray-fall-day-mia-mcpherson-4297-250x179.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-gray-fall-day-mia-mcpherson-4297-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-gray-fall-day-mia-mcpherson-4297-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-gray-fall-day-mia-mcpherson-4297-600x429.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-gray-fall-day-mia-mcpherson-4297-768x549.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-gray-fall-day-mia-mcpherson-4297-800x572.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-gray-fall-day-mia-mcpherson-4297.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Adult Great Blue Heron on a gray autumn day \u2013 Canon R7, f8, handheld, 1\/1600, ISO 2500, -0.7 EV, Canon 100-400mm at 271mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>There isn\u2019t a whole lot of fall color at the refuge or pretty much anywhere between there and Arkansas. I think the current drought has a lot to do with the lack of colorful leaves on the trees.<\/p>\n<p>Still, I couldn\u2019t resist taking photos of this Great Blue Heron, as I haven\u2019t seen or had many of them in my viewfinder for a while.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve taken photos of Great Blue Herons at Sally Jones Lake before where I also had the heron small in the frame to show the habitat on the shoreline of the lake. Two of those images can be seen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/07\/30\/great-blue-heron-at-sally-jones-lake-small-in-frame\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> and another one from the spring, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/04\/29\/birdscape-great-blue-heron-at-sequoyah-nwr\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The fishing must be good for the herons and egrets at Sally Jones Lake!<\/p>\n<p>It was great to get back to the refuge, explore the area, and spot a few birds and some wildlife. Finding eight Greater White-fronted Geese was a real surprise, and later in the day, seeing my first Snow Goose for the refuge was a joy.<\/p>\n<p>The clouds were an issue for photography, but getting out and walking a trail helped; I needed to stretch my legs and get some fresh air.<\/p>\n<p>Even though I didn\u2019t take all that many photos, I\u2019m still happy I was at the refuge. Cooler weather will soon bring in more birds, and I can hardly wait to have them in my viewfinder!<\/p>\n<p>Life<em> is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/great-blue-heron-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">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":"<p>I photographed this Great Blue Heron two days ago when the autumn sky was gray with clouds on Sally Jones Lake at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":136034,"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":[27,166,13973,13974],"tags":[4004,4117,970,14190,13984,4828,4620,2813,3987,627,626,5178,156,15457,4076,6917,313,3996],"class_list":["post-136037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-great-blue-herons","category-oklahoma","category-sequoyah-national-wildlife-refuge","tag-adult","tag-ardea-herodias","tag-autumn","tag-bottomland-hardwood-forest","tag-bottomlands","tag-cloudy","tag-fall","tag-gray-day","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-lake","tag-low-light-2","tag-sally-jones-lake","tag-trees","tag-vegetation","tag-wading-birds","tag-water"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-gray-fall-day-mia-mcpherson-4297.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-zo9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":156366,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/09\/17\/great-blue-heron-in-a-sycamore-from-a-distance\/","url_meta":{"origin":136037,"position":0},"title":"Great Blue Heron In A Sycamore: From A Distance","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I\u2019m sharing a photo of a Great Blue Heron perched in a sycamore over Sally Jones Lake at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron in a sycamore tree, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-blue-heron-sycamore-mia-mcpherson-8791.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-blue-heron-sycamore-mia-mcpherson-8791.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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on Sally Jones Lake, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/great-blue-heron-sally-jones-lake-mia-mcpherson-6732.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-heron-sally-jones-lake-mia-mcpherson-6732.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/great-blue-heron-sally-jones-lake-mia-mcpherson-6732.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/great-blue-heron-sally-jones-lake-mia-mcpherson-6732.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":142848,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/04\/13\/great-blue-heron-on-the-arkansas-river\/","url_meta":{"origin":136037,"position":2},"title":"Great Blue Heron on the Arkansas River","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 13, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm glad I saw this adult Great Blue Heron in the Arkansas River several days ago while I was at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Great Blue Heron on the Arkansas River, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/great-blue-heron-arkansas-river-mia-mcpherson-5031.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/great-blue-heron-arkansas-river-mia-mcpherson-5031.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Lower Scarborough Slough, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/great-blue-heron-morning-mist-mia-mcpherson-5078.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/great-blue-heron-morning-mist-mia-mcpherson-5078.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/great-blue-heron-morning-mist-mia-mcpherson-5078.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/great-blue-heron-morning-mist-mia-mcpherson-5078.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":139814,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/02\/13\/looking-forward-to-more-green-heron-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":136037,"position":4},"title":"Looking Forward To More Green Heron Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 13, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The last week or so has been too gray and wet to get out and photograph birds, but it has given me time to think about taking more Green Heron photos in Oklahoma.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Green Herons&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Green Herons","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/wading-birds\/green-herons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Subadult Green Heron on a late July morning, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/green-heron-fluffy-mia-mcpherson-7193.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/green-heron-fluffy-mia-mcpherson-7193.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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