{"id":48111,"date":"2017-08-14T05:14:00","date_gmt":"2017-08-14T11:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=48111"},"modified":"2025-08-19T13:27:56","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T18:27:56","slug":"great-blue-herons-and-the-great-salt-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/08\/14\/great-blue-herons-and-the-great-salt-lake\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Blue Herons and the Great Salt Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ImmatureImmature Great Blue Heron on the shore of the Great Salt Lake – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

The Great Salt Lake is hypersaline and only brine flies, brine shrimp and some algae can live in such saline conditions but the lake and its surrounding marshes provide critical habitat for millions of migrating shorebirds and waterfowl.<\/p>\n

Near Antelope Island State Park there are two smaller islands, White Rock and Egg Island, that are closed to access all year round because some species of birds nest there including California Gulls, Double-crested Cormorants and Great Blue Herons.<\/p>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Great Blue Heron at the Great Salt Lake – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The Great Salt Lake is too saline for fish to survive in so the adult herons, gulls and cormorants that nest on these two small islands have to fly long distances to catch prey to bring back to their young.<\/p>\n

Some fish do get into the lake from the rivers that feed the lake but they don’t survive for long in the high salinity.<\/p>\n

The islands offer no shade, no freshwater and nests are very close together from what I can see through my lens so one has to wonder why the adults decide to nest on these desert islands.<\/p>\n

It could be protection from land predators but with the lower lakes levels there are often land bridges to these islands during the middle of summer.<\/p>\n

\"RestingResting immature Great Blue Heron – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

After nesting season is completed the cormorants seem to disperse quickly to freshwater areas where they can find plentiful fish. The California Gulls hang around the lake because they consume brine flies on the lake and lake shore.<\/p>\n

It does seem odd though to see Great Blue Herons hanging around the Great Salt Lake<\/span><\/a> after the chicks have fledged like this immature heron I photographed yesterday near the causeway.<\/p>\n

I suppose the young herons could be looking for other prey along the lake shore or on the island itself like voles or injured migrating shorebirds near the water but it seems to me they could leave and fly to the freshwater marshes at Farmington Bay WMA, Ogden Bay WMA, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Great Salt Lake Shorelands Preserve or anywhere along the shoreline of the lake that has better and easier opportunities for capturing prey.<\/p>\n

I don’t know why some of the young Great Blue Herons hang around Antelope Island State Park after they have fledged but as a bird photographer I am glad they do.<\/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 does seem odd though to see Great Blue Herons hanging around the Great Salt Lake after the chicks have fledged like this immature heron I photographed yesterday near the causeway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":152950,"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":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[511,27,1022,166,26],"tags":[4117,5991,4142,3987,4005,5381,627,626,5314,4067,4046,4156,5990,313,4193],"class_list":["post-48111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-antelope-island-state-park","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-great-blue-herons","category-utah","tag-ardea-herodias","tag-brine-flies","tag-close-up","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-great-salt-lake","tag-hatch-year","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-hypersaline","tag-immature","tag-portrait","tag-resting","tag-saline-lake","tag-wading-birds","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-great-salt-lake-mia-mcpherson-2477.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-cvZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":109677,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/01\/18\/immature-black-crowned-night-heron\/","url_meta":{"origin":48111,"position":0},"title":"Immature Black-crowned Night Heron – Where Are The Birds?","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 18, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"While going through my archives I found this photo of a fishing immature Black-crowned Night Heron taken 10 years ago today at Farmington Bay WMA.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Black-crowned Night Heron fishing, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/black-crowned-night-heron-young-fishing-mia-mcpherson-2077.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/black-crowned-night-heron-young-fishing-mia-mcpherson-2077.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Food Source For California Gulls","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Brine flies that live in the Great Salt Lake are an important food source for California Gulls and watching the gulls feed on the flies is fascinating as they use several techniques to catch them.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult California Gull scooping up brine flies with its bill, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/california-gull-brine-flies-mia-mcpherson-3828.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/california-gull-brine-flies-mia-mcpherson-3828.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/california-gull-brine-flies-mia-mcpherson-3828.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/california-gull-brine-flies-mia-mcpherson-3828.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":110536,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/02\/26\/golden-hour-urban-great-blue-heron\/","url_meta":{"origin":48111,"position":3},"title":"Golden Hour: Urban Great Blue Heron","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The last time I photographed at a local park I found a Great Blue Heron resting in the water at the edge of a pond in the golden light found just after dawn.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Urban Great Blue Heron in golden light, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/great-blue-heron-local-pond-mia-mcpherson-4255.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/great-blue-heron-local-pond-mia-mcpherson-4255.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/great-blue-heron-local-pond-mia-mcpherson-4255.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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photographed this Great Blue Heron in low light last week at the Arkansas River Valley Nature Center. The heron and its reflection caught my eye.","rel":"","context":"In "Arkansas"","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron at Wells Lake, Arkansas River Valley Nature Center, Sebastian County, Arkansas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/great-blue-heron-wells-lake-mia-mcpherson-7862.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/great-blue-heron-wells-lake-mia-mcpherson-7862.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/great-blue-heron-wells-lake-mia-mcpherson-7862.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/great-blue-heron-wells-lake-mia-mcpherson-7862.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\/48111","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=48111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}