{"id":56124,"date":"2019-02-14T06:08:33","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T13:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=56124"},"modified":"2025-08-20T05:58:40","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T10:58:40","slug":"winter-great-blue-heron-photographed-close-to-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/02\/14\/winter-great-blue-heron-photographed-close-to-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Great Blue Heron Photographed Close To Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GreatGreat Blue Heron with long occipital plumes – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/8000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Two days ago on my immature Double-crested Cormorant<\/span><\/a> post I mentioned that prior to photographing the cormorant that I had been taking images of a Great Blue Heron, these two photos are of that heron.<\/p>\n

I saw the Great Blue Heron flying towards the shoreline of the pond and I was tracking it with my lens, when the bird appeared to be getting ready to land I started taking photos of it but as I took those photos I knew that I was going to be disappointed with the resulting files.<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

Because I could tell that some out of focus vegetation on my side of the pond between my lens and the heron was going to obscure a clean and clear view of the heron as it flared it wings to land and I was right.<\/p>\n

When I viewed the images on my camera’s LCD screen I could tell that the vegetation had ruined having an unobstructed view of this large wading bird as it landed.<\/p>\n

Those images will get dumped into my delete bin but happily I did take photos of the Great Blue as it moved along the shoreline of the pond that I like and find visually appealing.<\/p>\n

Because the Great Blue Heron was a distance away using f8 as my aperture was sufficient for getting not only the bird sharply in focus it also had the snow-covered pond bank in sharp focus too.<\/p>\n

I love how this photo clearly shows the long, black occipital plumes of the heron, as these herons get closer to breeding season those plumes lengthen.<\/p>\n

\"WinterWinter Great Blue Heron walking the shoreline – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/6400, ISO 640, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I can also just make out a bit of blue coloration in the lores of the heron in both of these photos and that also indicates that breeding season for this heron isn’t all that far away.<\/p>\n

I’ve wondered often this winter if this heron has a mate and if it does where they would nest. Of all the times I have gone down to my local pond I can only recall simultaneously seeing two herons in the vicinity once and that was earlier this winter.<\/p>\n

I wonder if the herons nest in the tall trees that line the Jordan River. Perhaps I should take a nice walk on the river trail to look around when it warms up some and isn’t blowing a gale like it is this morning!<\/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. This image was taken in Salt Lake County<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

By the way, my shutter speed was fairly high for both of these basically static photos however in my mind it doesn’t matter a bit that my shutter speed was high because I got the quality shots I wanted, having my shutter speed too slow could be and often is more of an issue.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two days ago on my immature Double-crested Cormorant post I mentioned that prior to photographing the cormorant that I had been taking images of a Great Blue Heron, these two photos are of that heron.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":152993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,166,709,26],"tags":[4004,4117,6963,3987,627,626,1714,1984,4188,4050,8018,313,3996,16369,373],"class_list":["post-56124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-great-blue-herons","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-ardea-herodias","tag-developing","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-occipital-plumes","tag-pond","tag-shoreline","tag-snow","tag-urban","tag-wading-birds","tag-water","tag-willow-pond-park","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-snow-and-water-mia-mpcherson-1623.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-eBe","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":56042,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/02\/12\/landing-immature-double-crested-cormorant-seeking-safety\/","url_meta":{"origin":56124,"position":0},"title":"Landing Immature Double-crested Cormorant Seeking Safety","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 12, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This immature Double-crested Cormorant appears to be molting and probably needs all the rest it can get because of the molt and because winter is hard on these overwintering cormorants.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Double-crested Cormorant landing on a pond, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/double-crested-cormorant-immature-landing-mia-mcpherson-1651.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/double-crested-cormorant-immature-landing-mia-mcpherson-1651.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/double-crested-cormorant-immature-landing-mia-mcpherson-1651.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/double-crested-cormorant-immature-landing-mia-mcpherson-1651.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":137688,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/12\/06\/great-blue-heron-at-charleston-lake-plus-a-video\/","url_meta":{"origin":56124,"position":1},"title":"Great Blue Heron At Charleston Lake Plus A Video","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I took this Great Blue Heron image on December 1st at Charleston Lake Park in Franklin County, Arkansas, on the same day as the cormorant photos I recently shared.","rel":"","context":"In "Arkansas"","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult Great Blue Heron foraging at Charleston Lake, Charleston Lake Park, Franklin County, Arkansas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/great-blue-heron-charleston-lake-mia-mcpherson-4476.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/great-blue-heron-charleston-lake-mia-mcpherson-4476.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/great-blue-heron-charleston-lake-mia-mcpherson-4476.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/great-blue-heron-charleston-lake-mia-mcpherson-4476.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":137638,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/12\/02\/double-crested-cormorant-at-charleston-lake-park\/","url_meta":{"origin":56124,"position":2},"title":"Double-crested Cormorant At Charleston Lake Park","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm delighted to share two Double-crested Cormorant images that I took yesterday at Charleston Lake Park. Both photos show the same bird swimming on the lake.","rel":"","context":"In "Arkansas"","block_context":{"text":"Arkansas","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/arkansas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Double-crested Cormorant swimming on Charleston Lake, Charleston Lake Park, Franklin County, Arkansas","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/double-crested-cormorant-charleston-lake-mia-mcpherson-4563.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/double-crested-cormorant-charleston-lake-mia-mcpherson-4563.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/double-crested-cormorant-charleston-lake-mia-mcpherson-4563.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/great-blue-heron-and-shadow-on-ice-mia-mcpherson-6888.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/great-blue-heron-and-shadow-on-ice-mia-mcpherson-6888.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/great-blue-heron-and-shadow-on-ice-mia-mcpherson-6888.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/great-blue-heron-and-shadow-on-ice-mia-mcpherson-6888.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5838,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/08\/02\/great-blue-heron-portrait\/","url_meta":{"origin":56124,"position":4},"title":"Great Blue Heron Portrait","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This Great Blue Heron got up close and personal with me a few years ago in Florida, it largely ignored my presence altogether as it stalked prey on shore of the Gulf of Mexico.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Close up of a Great Blue Heron at the north beach of Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8145.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/great-blue-heron-portrait-mia-mcpherson-8145.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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