{"id":76122,"date":"2020-12-14T06:04:22","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T13:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=76122"},"modified":"2025-08-20T07:24:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T12:24:10","slug":"still-life-great-blue-heron-and-its-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/12\/14\/still-life-great-blue-heron-and-its-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"Still Life &#8211; Great Blue Heron And Its Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-153030 size-full\" title=\"Great Blue Heron and its reflection, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-farmington-bay-water-and-ice-mia-mcpherson-9155.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-farmington-bay-water-and-ice-mia-mcpherson-9155.jpg\" alt=\"Great Blue Heron and its reflection, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27600%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20600%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27600%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-farmington-bay-water-and-ice-mia-mcpherson-9155-200x133.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-farmington-bay-water-and-ice-mia-mcpherson-9155-400x267.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-farmington-bay-water-and-ice-mia-mcpherson-9155-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-farmington-bay-water-and-ice-mia-mcpherson-9155-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-farmington-bay-water-and-ice-mia-mcpherson-9155.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Great Blue Heron and its reflection \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I was planning on doing a different post this morning that included a video I took but when I tried to get to the video to link it I discovered that I couldn&#8217;t get to YouTube because Google was down world wide for a while today. Google is mostly back up now but it does make me wonder <em>why<\/em> it went down and <em>who<\/em> caused the global outage.\u00a0 I still can&#8217;t get to the video I uploaded to YouTube last week.<\/p>\n<p>Since things on Google were at a stand still this morning I decided I&#8217;d share a still life photo of a Great Blue Heron in a frosty, winter marsh.<\/p>\n<p>Great Blue Herons are very patient hunters and there are times when they are hunting that they move so slowly that it is barely perceptible.<\/p>\n<p>Great Blue Herons are year round residents here in northern Utah and even though our temps can be bitter cold during our harsh winters these herons not only survive, they thrive. When the water completely ices over they start stalking small rodents instead of fish.<\/p>\n<p>I photographed this heron a week ago from two different angles and liked this angle the best because the water had so many reflections including the reflection of the heron. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.utahbirds.org\/counties\/davis\/FarmingtonBay.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Farmington Bay WMA<\/span><\/a> is a terrific place to see Great Blue Herons during the winter in the frosty marshes, flying overhead or perched on the man made heron rookery near the nature center.<\/p>\n<p>There are times I wish I could wave a magic wand and gift people with the patience that these herons are known for. Wouldn&#8217;t that be wonderful?<\/p>\n<p>Life <em>is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/great-blue-heron-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">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":"<p>Great Blue Herons are very patient hunters and there are times when they are hunting that they move so slowly that it is barely perceptible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":153030,"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":[27,1022,697,166,26],"tags":[4004,4117,3983,6926,3987,627,626,4064,4094,958,4891,10748,6917,313,3996,4095,373],"class_list":["post-76122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-great-blue-herons","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-ardea-herodias","tag-frost","tag-frozen","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-ice","tag-marsh","tag-reflections","tag-shore","tag-still-life","tag-vegetation","tag-wading-birds","tag-water","tag-wetlands","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/great-blue-heron-farmington-bay-water-and-ice-mia-mcpherson-9155.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-jNM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":141865,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/03\/21\/great-blue-heron-at-arkansas-river-valley-nature-center\/","url_meta":{"origin":76122,"position":0},"title":"Great Blue Heron At Arkansas River Valley Nature Center","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I 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 &quot;Arkansas&quot;","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":[]},{"id":120400,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/02\/03\/great-blue-heron-and-reflection-on-the-bear-river\/","url_meta":{"origin":76122,"position":1},"title":"Great Blue Heron And Reflection On The Bear River","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 3, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, I'm sharing a simple Great Blue Heron photo I took late last month at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. I liked the heron's reflection on the Bear River.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge&quot;","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":", Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/great-blue-heron-river-near-rocks-brmbr-mia-mcpherson-4634.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/great-blue-heron-river-near-rocks-brmbr-mia-mcpherson-4634.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/great-blue-heron-river-near-rocks-brmbr-mia-mcpherson-4634.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/great-blue-heron-river-near-rocks-brmbr-mia-mcpherson-4634.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":156366,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2025\/09\/17\/great-blue-heron-in-a-sycamore-from-a-distance\/","url_meta":{"origin":76122,"position":2},"title":"Great Blue Heron In A Sycamore: From A Distance","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I\u2019m sharing a photo of a Great Blue Heron perched in a sycamore over Sally Jones Lake at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron in a sycamore tree, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-blue-heron-sycamore-mia-mcpherson-8791.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-blue-heron-sycamore-mia-mcpherson-8791.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-blue-heron-sycamore-mia-mcpherson-8791.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-blue-heron-sycamore-mia-mcpherson-8791.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":76122,"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 &quot;Birds&quot;","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, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/great-blue-heron-local-pond-mia-mcpherson-4255.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":100076,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/02\/18\/great-blue-herons-at-the-farmington-bay-rookery\/","url_meta":{"origin":76122,"position":4},"title":"Great Blue Herons At The Farmington Bay Rookery","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 18, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The breeding season has begun for the Great Blue Herons at the Farmington Bay rookery and throughout northern Utah.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Herons at the Farmington Bay rookery, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/great-blue-herons-rookery-mia-mcpherson-3757.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/great-blue-herons-rookery-mia-mcpherson-3757.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/great-blue-herons-rookery-mia-mcpherson-3757.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/great-blue-herons-rookery-mia-mcpherson-3757.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":175279,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2026\/04\/26\/great-blue-heron-in-morning-mist\/","url_meta":{"origin":76122,"position":5},"title":"Great Blue Heron In Morning Mist","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 26, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I was tickled to photograph an adult Great Blue Heron in a morning mist at the Lower Scarborough Slough area of Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Blue Heron in morning mist at Lower Scarborough Slough, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/great-blue-heron-morning-mist-mia-mcpherson-5078.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/great-blue-heron-morning-mist-mia-mcpherson-5078.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76122","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=76122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}