{"id":153130,"date":"2025-08-21T03:55:33","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T08:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=153130"},"modified":"2025-09-16T17:00:32","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T22:00:32","slug":"great-blue-heron-memories-from-fort-de-soto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/08\/21\/great-blue-heron-memories-from-fort-de-soto\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Blue Heron Memories From Fort De Soto"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems a little dreamy, but some of these Great Blue Heron photos taken at Fort De Soto County Park<\/span><\/a> in Florida are almost 20 years old now!<\/p>\n

\"Very<\/a><\/div><\/div>
\"Great<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
\"Great<\/a><\/div><\/div>
\"Great<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
\"Windblown<\/a><\/div><\/div>
\"Great<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
\"Great<\/a><\/div><\/div>
\"Great<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
\"Immature<\/a><\/div><\/div>
\"The<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/div>
\"Great<\/a><\/div><\/div>
\"Serious<\/a><\/div><\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

I\u2019ve been working on updating some of the photos in my galleries and came across these Great Blue Heron images. These have been in my photo gallery for this wading bird species but haven’t been shared here.<\/p>\n

So I have shaken the digital dust off them to share a few here this morning.<\/p>\n

Each photo reminds me of the sugar sand beach at the park, the scent of salt in the sea breeze, the sound of the waves on the Gulf of Mexico, and the peace and quiet I found there during my early morning photo strolls.<\/p>\n

Some of my all-time favorite Great Blue Heron photos were taken at Fort De Soto, usually in the very early hours of the morning.<\/p>\n

I don’t think I’ll ever forget taking a series of photos of a Great Blue at the north beach where I had the pink Belt of Venus and the bluish Earth Shadow behind that bird.<\/p>\n

The strong wind that morning caused the sand to blow and sting my exposed skin, but every glowing photo I took was worth it.<\/p>\n

Each photo I take has memories attached to them.<\/p>\n

The memories of these? Are simply wonderful.<\/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":"

It seems a little dreamy, but some of these Great Blue Heron photos taken at Fort De Soto County Park in Florida are almost 20 years old now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":153100,"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":[27,25,704,166,2000],"tags":[4004,4117,4039,7890,4142,14752,4198,37,4153,3987,173,4077,627,626,4067,3980,4046,9927,4017,14695,5418,16683,313,4236,3996,4193],"class_list":["post-153130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-great-blue-herons","category-pinellas-county-florida","tag-adult","tag-ardea-herodias","tag-beach","tag-belt-of-venus","tag-close-up","tag-coastal-island","tag-earth-shadow","tag-florida-2","tag-fort-de-soto-county-park","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-gulf-coast","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-immature","tag-pinellas-county","tag-portrait","tag-ruffled","tag-sand","tag-sandbar","tag-territorial-behavior","tag-turtle-grass","tag-wading-birds","tag-walking","tag-water","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-mia-mcpherson-8077.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-DPQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16024,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/10\/02\/tricolored-heron-hunting-the-gulf-of-mexicos-shoreline\/","url_meta":{"origin":153130,"position":0},"title":"Tricolored Heron Hunting The Gulf Of Mexico’s Shoreline","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Tricolored Herons are smaller than Great Blue Herons and larger than Snowy Egrets and all three of these wading birds hunt in many of the same locations along the Gulf Coast.","rel":"","context":"In "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, 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"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, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/great-blue-heron-squawking-mia-mcpherson-8140.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/great-blue-heron-squawking-mia-mcpherson-8140.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-preening-mia-mcpherson-6233.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-preening-mia-mcpherson-6233.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-preening-mia-mcpherson-6233.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-preening-mia-mcpherson-6233.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6548,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/11\/10\/tricolored-heron-in-breeding-plumage-with-prey\/","url_meta":{"origin":153130,"position":3},"title":"Tricolored Heron in breeding plumage with prey","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"While in breeding plumage Tricolored Herons have redder legs, darker red eyes, blue lores and blue on the bill plus a longer, white occipital plume than they do during the nonbreeding season.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tricolored Heron in breeding plumage with prey, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, 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":34847,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/01\/15\/little-blue-herons-on-the-hunt\/","url_meta":{"origin":153130,"position":4},"title":"Little Blue Herons On The Hunt","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"These Little Blue Herons on the hunt were both taken at Fort De Soto in two different tidal lagoons.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Little Blue Heron searching for prey in a blue lagoon at Fort De Soto County Park, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/little-blue-heron-hunting-lagoon-mia-mcpherson-5709.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/little-blue-heron-hunting-lagoon-mia-mcpherson-5709.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/little-blue-heron-hunting-lagoon-mia-mcpherson-5709.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/little-blue-heron-hunting-lagoon-mia-mcpherson-5709.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37685,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/03\/31\/great-blue-herons-expelling-bile\/","url_meta":{"origin":153130,"position":5},"title":"Great Blue Herons Expelling Bile? (Graphic)","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I have only seen and photographed these two Great Blue Herons expelling bile in Florida and Utah. I wonder how often this occurs.","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":"Retching Great Blue Heron, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/great-blue-heron-regurgitating-mia-mcpherson-8059.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/great-blue-heron-regurgitating-mia-mcpherson-8059.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/great-blue-heron-regurgitating-mia-mcpherson-8059.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/great-blue-heron-regurgitating-mia-mcpherson-8059.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\/153130","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=153130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}