{"id":55211,"date":"2018-12-04T05:45:38","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T12:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=55211"},"modified":"2025-10-09T16:43:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T21:43:31","slug":"resting-great-blue-heron-with-american-coots-at-the-local-pond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/12\/04\/resting-great-blue-heron-with-american-coots-at-the-local-pond\/","title":{"rendered":"Resting Great Blue Heron With American Coots At The Local Pond"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RestingResting Great Blue Heron with American Coots – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This setting may look familiar to keen eyed viewers who saw my image yesterday of American Coots in a snow storm.<\/p>\n

This photo of a resting Great Blue Heron with American Coots was taken yesterday afternoon when the sun was shining on the same shoreline of my local pond as one of the photos I shared here on my blog yesterday.<\/p>\n

The light was brighter and it wasn’t snowing so the two images of the same location have a different “feel” to them.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Coots in a snow storm \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/320, ISO 800, +1.0 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m posting this photo again for easy comparison. Is one image more appealing than the other because of the different light and the weather conditions?<\/p>\n

Really that is just a matter of personal taste and personal taste varies greatly from one person to the next. Both images have appeal to me.<\/p>\n

Great Blue Herons are year round residents here in northern Utah, they get through the snow storms and the bitter cold of our winters much the same as our other year round resident birds and are just as tough.<\/p>\n

This Great Blue Heron<\/span><\/a> may be seen at my local pond off and on this winter depending on whether the pond completely ices over this winter.<\/p>\n

Last year this pond never did freeze completely for shore to shore but last winter was pretty “warm” compared to previous winters and it never stayed cold enough for long enough for the pond to ice over completely.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

This photo of a resting Great Blue Heron with American Coots was taken yesterday afternoon when the sun was shining on the same shoreline of my local pond as one of the photos I shared here on my blog yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":152975,"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":[137,27,166,709,26],"tags":[4010,4117,2772,2773,768,4121,3987,627,626,1984,4050,4509,4500,8018,313],"class_list":["post-55211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-coots","category-avian","category-great-blue-herons","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-american-coot","tag-ardea-herodias","tag-coot","tag-coots","tag-falling-snow","tag-fulica-americana","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-pond","tag-snow","tag-snow-storm","tag-storm","tag-urban","tag-wading-birds"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-american-coots-pond-mia-mcpherson-2389.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-emv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55202,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/12\/03\/american-coots-canada-geese-in-a-winter-snow-storm\/","url_meta":{"origin":55211,"position":0},"title":"American Coots & Canada Geese In A Winter Snow Storm","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Neither of these images will knock anyone's socks off but for me they show these coots and geese in the snow storm and the harsh conditions they live in, just birds being birds.","rel":"","context":"In "American Coots"","block_context":{"text":"American Coots","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gruiformes\/american-coots\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Canada Geese in a winter snow storm, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/canada-geese-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-2314.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/canada-geese-snow-storm-mia-mcpherson-2314.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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McPherson","date":"October 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The light was beautiful yesterday morning at Farmington Bay WMA and I was able to photograph a few species if birds including this juvenile Northern Harrier flying over the marsh.","rel":"","context":"In "American Coots"","block_context":{"text":"American Coots","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gruiformes\/american-coots\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Northern Harrier in flight over a marsh at Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-4627.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/northern-harrier-flight-mia-mcpherson-4627.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Coots","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gruiformes\/american-coots\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Black-necked Stilt juvenile at Bear River MBR, Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-necked-stilt-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-6380.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-necked-stilt-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-6380.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-necked-stilt-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-6380.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/black-necked-stilt-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-6380.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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