Solitary and secretive, the Green Heron has been one of the more elusive birds I have sought to photograph. Prior to 2023, I had exactly 15 photos that were taken on a walk with my husband, Jeff, in 2016. We specifically went to a pond near his office where he had seen a Green Heron and Eastern Bluebirds earlier that week. Both were on my list of birds to photograph. Over the next 6+ years I continued to look for more but did not find any. Then came spring, 2023.
May 26th, a beautiful spring day to head down to the local park to see what might be swimming at the lake or singing in the trees. Peeking under a bridge I spied a Green Heron fishing on the other side. Not noticing me, I was able to snap several photos. I was so excited and couldn’t believe my luck. Finally, I was able to once again see and photograph this beautiful little water bird. I spent the next few weeks visiting my new friend several times.
June 17th, was my next heron surprise. While driving back from hiking (with my camera of course) at a state park, I noticed two Green Herons sitting in bushes in a drainage pond 2 blocks from my house. I had Jeff quickly turn into the lot so I could photograph them. He was able to pull within feet of where they were, and since the pond was lower than street level, they were directly at eye level from where I exited the car. More photos.
After that, it seemed that every park I went to had Green Herons. Having a job that allows me to work from home a couple days each week, allowed me to go to local city and regional parks early in the morning to look for birds prior to starting my work day. On weekends I also visited other city and regional parks nearby that offer beautiful hiking trails and lakes. Green Herons everywhere.
July 30th, I have to say was my favorite day of Heron hunting. Purgatory Creek Park listed several sightings of birds that were on my “list”, so I headed down to see what I could find. As I later told Jeff, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. There were Green Heron, Blue Heron, Egrets, and Wood Ducks, among other species everywhere. I think the best part was photographing a Blue Heron that was only a few feet away, only to look down and find a young Green Heron at my feet looking up as if to say, “what are you doing?”. It took everything I had to not scoop him up and take the little cutie home.
July 30th, I have to say was my favorite day of Heron hunting. Purgatory Creek Park listed several sightings of birds that were on my “list”, so I headed down to see what I could find. As I later told Jeff, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. There were Green Heron, Blue Heron, Egrets, and Wood Ducks, among other species everywhere. I think the best part was photographing a Blue Heron that was only a few feet away, only to look down and find a young Green Heron at my feet looking up as if to say, “what are you doing?”. It took everything I had to not scoop him up and take the little cutie home.
I did, of course, bring most of these beautiful creatures home with me in the form of photographs. By the time these little water birds flew south for the winter I had over 350 new keeper photographs. (After a few hundred, you feel free to delete the bad ones.) I’d say that’s a successful year!
I can’t wait to see what 2024 brings.
