(This post originally published in July 2010)
The last week has brought one of my favorite aquatic birds near my kayak, the Green Heron (Butorides virescens). In our area, these birds are very skittish and are hard to get close to, certainly not like those that inhabit places like Ding Darling NWR, where they are habituated to humans. So getting close to these colorful birds is a special treat for me. In fact, I no longer try to get close to the birds. Instead, I learn where they like to perch/fish and then I arrive in the area before they show up, and wait for them in the kayak. This approach works well for me and it is not uncommon to have one or more of these beauties fly in and perch close to where I’m sitting.
Here are a few images I collected this past week:
