{"id":26844,"date":"2012-11-26T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-26T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thebirdersreport.com\/?p=4663"},"modified":"2019-12-22T22:33:27","modified_gmt":"2019-12-22T09:33:27","slug":"great-blue-heron-close-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/great-blue-heron-close-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Blue Heron Close-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago at Lema Ranch I came upon a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) fishing in Leah’s Pond.<\/p>\n

As is usual for this species, this heron was standing still and waiting for its prey most of the time and slowly walking through the shallow water otherwise, looking for anything that would fit down its throat.<\/p>\n

Lema Ranch has many walkers and joggers that traverse the grounds and some of the local birds are fairly tolerant of visitors.<\/p>\n

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Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) photos by Larry Jordan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

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Great Blue Heron<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

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Great Blue Heron<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

One thing that I really like about digiscoping is that it allows me to get close-up views of birds without disrupting their natural behavior.<\/p>\n

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Great Blue Heron<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Great Blue Herons are a very adaptive species, feeding on a wide array of animals including fish, insects, mammals, amphibians, birds and crustaceans1<\/sup>. Just get a load of that beak!<\/p>\n

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Great Blue Heron<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

I shot a video of this bird fishing Leah’s pond. As you can see, most of its time was spent motionless, waiting for prey to show itself. He or she did slowly wade through the water also but caught the one fish I saw it catch at the end of the video by standing in wait. Enjoy!<\/p>\n