{"id":44304,"date":"2017-01-10T06:46:19","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T13:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=44304"},"modified":"2025-06-11T09:37:47","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T14:37:47","slug":"strolling-yellow-crowned-night-heron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/01\/10\/strolling-yellow-crowned-night-heron\/","title":{"rendered":"Strolling Yellow-crowned Night Heron – Thinking Back on Brighter, Warmer Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"StrollingStrolling Yellow-crowned Night Heron – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1500, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

It has now been 4 days since I have been out in the field to photograph birds, longer than that if I subtract the day I went up north and came home with nothing but soft images because of air disturbance caused by heat waves.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Cabin fever has begun to set in and I have grown tired of these leaden gray skies. It looks like I need to get through today, tomorrow and the next day before there “might” be enough light on Friday to go out looking for birds to photograph.<\/p>\n

\"Weather

Weather January 10, 2017<\/p><\/div>\n

The screen shot above shows the weather here this morning and the cruddy stuff heading my way. I am where that red arrow and aqua dot is. Nice, right? The left side of the frame is where the Pacific coast is, there is plenty of rocky weather heading this way.<\/p>\n

I really don’t want to sound like I am complaining because the more moisture we get the better in this desert state especially up in the mountains where high levels of snow can mean a good spring run off to fill the reservoirs and maybe even raise the water elevation in the Great Salt Lake but day after day of gray does get to me a bit and it makes me think back on brighter, warmer days.<\/p>\n

So this morning my mind drifted back to June of 2009, to a bright, warm day on the Gulf coast of Florida and a strolling Yellow-crowned Night Heron that I photographed as waves churned up behind it.<\/p>\n

The Yellow-crowned Night Heron came up on me while I was photographing a few shorebirds and I couldn’t resist taking a few photos as it casually walked past me on a ridge of sand heading south towards a lagoon.<\/p>\n

As I recall I pretty much had the beach and the birds to myself that morning and I was delighted by that and the soothing sound of the waves meeting the shore. It was a great morning spent following my passion for bird photography.<\/p>\n

I have a ton of culling to get caught up on so I will work on that today while the gray clouds hang over the valley. If I stay busy the time will seem like it goes by faster.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Yellow-crowned Night Heron photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This morning my mind drifted back to June of 2009, to a bright, warm day on the Gulf coast of Florida and a strolling Yellow-crowned Night Heron that I photographed as waves churned up behind it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":148129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,25,704,2000,93],"tags":[4039,4077,626,3957,4000,165,313,4119,95],"class_list":["post-44304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-yellow-crowned-night-heron","tag-beach","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-herons","tag-night-herons","tag-nyctanassa-violacea","tag-spring","tag-wading-birds","tag-waves","tag-yellow-crowned-night-heron"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-beach-gulf-mia-mcpherson-4038.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-bwA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6048,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/09\/04\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-or-orange-eyed-day-heron\/","url_meta":{"origin":44304,"position":0},"title":"Yellow-crowned Night Heron or Orange-eyed Day Heron?","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Despite having \"Night Heron\" in their name Yellow-crowned Night Herons (Nyctanassa violacea) are not strictly denizens of the dark, they can and do stalk their prey during the daylight hours too.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Yellow-crowned Night Heron looking for breakfast, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-mia-mcpherson-7955.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-mia-mcpherson-7955.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Heron In Low Light","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The first bird I photographed that day was a Yellow-crowned Night Heron wandering in the sea fog near the dunes and shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Yellow-crowned Night Heron in low, silvery light, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-low-light-mia-mcpherson-5744.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/yellow-crowned-night-heron-low-light-mia-mcpherson-5744.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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McPherson","date":"November 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Since I moved to Utah I have never been able to get as close to Black-crowned Night Herons like I was able to approach this bird in Florida.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black-crowned Night Heron portrait, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-crowned-night-heron-mia-mcpherson-portrait-florida-1376.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/black-crowned-night-heron-mia-mcpherson-portrait-florida-1376.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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