{"id":142848,"date":"2025-04-13T02:43:41","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T07:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=142848"},"modified":"2025-07-07T12:42:31","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T17:42:31","slug":"great-blue-heron-on-the-arkansas-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/04\/13\/great-blue-heron-on-the-arkansas-river\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Blue Heron on the Arkansas River"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/span><\/a> in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult Great Blue Heron on the Arkansas River \u2013 Canon R7, handheld, f6.3, 1\/4000, ISO 1600, +1.3 EV, Canon EF 100-400mm II at 255mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve photographed Great Blue Herons in many types of habitats, including swamps, the Gulf Coast, wetlands, marshes, lake shores, city ponds, town dumps, and alpine streams high in the mountains. Now I can include the Arkansas River.<\/p>\n

The Arkansas River appeared to be moving slowly that morning, which was a little surprising given how much rain we\u2019ve had recently.<\/p>\n

I would have enjoyed seeing the Great Blue Heron catch a fish from the stump in the river, but that wasn\u2019t to be. After I took this image, the heron flew over to a log in a little cove and stayed there for a while.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s nesting season for Great Blue Herons, but I have no clue where they might be nesting on the refuge, or any indication that they nest there at all. I haven\u2019t seen any signs of a rookery on the refuge or from the various viewpoints along the river.<\/p>\n

What I do know is that I always enjoy having these prehistoric-looking birds in my viewfinder wherever I go. They are amazing wading birds.<\/p>\n

What I liked about this photo was the heron’s pose, the still water, the stump in the river, and the way the heron seemed to have their eye on something off in the distance.<\/p>\n

I hope to see many more Great Blue Herons at the refuge this year and it would be wonderful to photograph the young too.<\/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":"

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142845,"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":[4004,4117,14023,13984,4053,3987,627,626,4104,5558,165,7469,5113,313,3996],"class_list":["post-142848","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-arkansas-river","tag-bottomlands","tag-breeding-plumage","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-perched","tag-river","tag-spring","tag-still","tag-stump","tag-wading-birds","tag-water"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/great-blue-heron-arkansas-river-mia-mcpherson-5031.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-Ba0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":115070,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/08\/09\/great-blue-heron-and-azolla-at-sequoyah-nwr\/","url_meta":{"origin":142848,"position":0},"title":"Great Blue Heron And Azolla at Sequoyah NWR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 9, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A quick post about a Great Blue Heron hunting for breakfast in Azolla at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in June in Oklahoma.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron at Sequoyah NWR, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/great-blue-heron-azolla-mia-mcpherson-1153.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/great-blue-heron-azolla-mia-mcpherson-1153.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/great-blue-heron-azolla-mia-mcpherson-1153.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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2025","format":false,"excerpt":"My journeys to Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma are always wonderful, even when I don\u2019t take many photos or the weather isn\u2019t all that great.","rel":"","context":"In "Great Blue Herons"","block_context":{"text":"Great Blue Herons","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/wading-birds\/great-blue-herons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron hunting in a slough at Sequoyah NWR, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/great-blue-heron-slough-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-2075.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-slough-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-2075.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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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":136037,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/10\/29\/great-blue-heron-on-a-gray-autumn-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":142848,"position":4},"title":"Great Blue Heron 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