These are the closer shots of a Little Blue Heron I published last week. I actually had to work harder to get a far image of the bird framed in the trees and moss.
There is not a hint of blue color on this juvenile so I’m assuming he was from this years spring broods.
The young birds stay white for at least their first year, maybe 18 months.
A Little Blue grows to about 2 feet tall ( .6 meters), not a small bird.
Breeding is in sub-tropical swamps, meaning here, and they mix with Egret rookeries. Again, here.
ACE Basin, South Carolina.
Spanish Moss, something we don’t see here, makes for an interesting background. These birds are elegant whether white or blue😊
Spanish Moss is ‘the’ symbolic icon of the southern swamps. At least in my mind. My first day here, arriving in Charleston for the first time, I pointed out a tree to Ellen and almost screamed out ‘Spanish Moss’ LOL.
That was it for me… time for the chapter.