{"id":99752,"date":"2022-02-09T05:49:08","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T12:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=99752"},"modified":"2022-02-09T05:54:01","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T12:54:01","slug":"winter-great-blue-heron-images","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/02\/09\/winter-great-blue-heron-images\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Great Blue Heron Images"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GreatGreat Blue Heron warming up in the morning \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

While I was at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> two days ago I was able to take quite a few Great Blue Heron images of four individual herons in the marsh. Five days ago I missed taking photos of a Great Blue Heron in this location because the heron that I found that morning took off and flew away before I could get back to it.<\/p>\n

Two days ago I nailed the shots. The heron didn’t take flight and after taking images of the large wading bird that I knew I liked I said thank you and goodbye to this heron.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAdult Great Blue Heron on a February morning \u2013 Nikon D500, f9, 1\/1000, ISO 250, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

A couple of miles away I found a second Great Blue Heron standing in front of a stand of phrags and cattails. From inside my Jeep I took a series of photos of the heron after I removed my teleconverter that I liked a lot because they also showed some snow on the ice to the left of the bird. With my 1.4x teleconverter on that snow was barely visible on the left side of the frame.<\/p>\n

\"RestingResting Great Blue Heron on a February morning \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/4000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When I saw another location nearby where the roadside vegetation opened up I slowly moved my Jeep to that spot to take more photos of the second Great Blue Heron. Moving forward allowed me to have even more of the snow on the ice show in my images behind the bird.<\/p>\n

I bumped my ISO up for these photos because I wanted a faster shutter speed in case the heron took flight. It didn’t. The heron was quite content to warm up in the rays of the later winter sun. I thanked the heron and moved up the road.<\/p>\n

\"GreatGreat Blue Heron tucked into the phragmites \u2013 Nikon D500, f11, 1\/400, ISO 250, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Just a few hundred feet from the second Great Blue Heron I spotted another one tucked into the phragmites and stopped to take a few images of it. This heron didn’t move the entire time I had it in my viewfinder so I thanked the heron and headed towards the end of the auto tour loop.<\/p>\n

\"WinterWinter Great Blue Heron standing on an icy canal \u2013 Nikon D500, f11, 1\/640, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

After driving slowly up the auto tour route another couple of hundred yards I found the fourth Great Blue Heron that I photographed two days ago. This one took flight before I could get close but I could see that the heron landed on the icy surface of a canal not terribly far from the road.<\/p>\n

When I stopped my Jeep the heron was still walking towards the edge of an ice shelf. The ice was so thin where the heron stopped that I thought it might fall through it into the water. It didn’t or at least it didn’t while I was parked there. I took a nice series of photos of this Great Blue Heron before thanking the bird and saying goodbye.<\/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":"

While I was at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge two days ago I was able to take quite a few Great Blue Heron images of four individual herons in the marsh.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99737,"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":[124,27,1148,166,26],"tags":[4004,4117,12732,4366,3987,627,626,4064,6241,4094,4378,4059,6428,4156,4050,953,6917,313,4985,3996,373],"class_list":["post-99752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-great-blue-herons","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-ardea-herodias","tag-canal","tag-cattails","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-heron","tag-herons","tag-ice","tag-icy","tag-marsh","tag-morning","tag-phragmites","tag-phrags","tag-resting","tag-snow","tag-standing","tag-vegetation","tag-wading-birds","tag-warming-up","tag-water","tag-winter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/great-blue-heron-winter-marsh-mia-mcpherson-8145.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-pWU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":62505,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/08\/photographing-great-blue-herons-on-the-frozen-marshes-of-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":99752,"position":0},"title":"Photographing Great Blue Herons On The Frozen Marshes Of Bear River MBR","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 8, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday morning I spent time focusing on photographing Great Blue Herons on the frozen marshes of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","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":"Great Blue Heron and the frozen marsh at Bear River MBR, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/great-blue-heron-frozen-marsh-mia-mcpherson-0568.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/great-blue-heron-frozen-marsh-mia-mcpherson-0568.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/great-blue-heron-lifting-off-from-ice-mia-mcpherson-0627.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/great-blue-heron-lifting-off-from-ice-mia-mcpherson-0627.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/great-blue-heron-lifting-off-from-ice-mia-mcpherson-0627.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/great-blue-heron-lifting-off-from-ice-mia-mcpherson-0627.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":86556,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/05\/01\/great-blue-heron-in-flight-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":99752,"position":3},"title":"Great Blue Heron In Flight Photos","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I am sharing seven Great Blue Heron in flight photos from the marsh at Bear River MBR that I took three days ago.","rel":"","context":"In "Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge"","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":"Great Blue Heron with wings fully spread in flight, 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-wetlands-mia-mcpherson-2145.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-wetlands-mia-mcpherson-2145.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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