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Friday, September 23, 2016

Plenty of Heron Action to Delight You


                                               2nd Summer Yellow-crowned Night-Heron


                                                                           Ditto
                                         

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (Top)
Green Heron (Bottom)  

                                                         Yellow-crowned Night Heron


                                                                          Ditto


                                                                  Great Blue Heron


                                                                    Snowy Egrets


                                                               Adult Green Heron


09-17-19
0745-1249 hrs./62-80 degrees F/partly cloudy/8 mph SE winds/61% RH

The Yellow-crowned Night Heron is quite at home at Heron Cove, allowing for several shots, as
well as behavior observation.  When the sun hits a high range and seems to be in the bird's eyes, it no
longer wishes to be out in the open.  This most likely is due to its red eyes being sun sensitive.  At that point, it wishes to retire to a favorite tree where it sleeps until late afternoon.

For size perspectives, the photo with the Yellow-crowned Night Heron and Green Heron is shown,
so one can get a rough idea on how large they are by sight.  Great Blue Heron is the largest heron.
The night-heron is medium sized, and Green Heron is small.

1030-1200 at Boomer Creek

This was my first time at the creek for a good week, and I observed and took several photos of this
wonderful Snowy Egret pair, who most likely spent breeding time siring young at the heronry.  This
Great Blue Heron had been watching me creep up to a natural blind the entire time in order to get closer to the snows, and never uttered a squawk, which would have made them go into high alert.

Luckily, I was between two young trees with a small opening between leaves in order to photograph
the snowies.



                                                          Yellow-crowned Night-Heron


                                                            Double-crested Cormorants


                                                                      Gulf Fritillary


09-18-16
0755-1045 hrs./65-75 degrees/partly cloudy/8 mph SSW winds/94-63% RH

The Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, a rare visitor to the area, is shown so much just to record
the possible changes to its transition from juvenile to adulthood.  It is unknown how long it intends
to be in the area.

The Double-crested Cormorants are returning to the area and should be juveniles for the most
part.  The adults will be coming in again from their breeding grounds, but it is possible that they might not stop at Boomer Lake on their return southbound.

A larger number of butterflies were observed, mostly the gulf fritillary and a few monarchs.  The monarchs should be migrating right about now.




                                                          Yellow-crowned Night-Heron


                                                                  Great Blue Heron


                                                       Yellow-crowned Night-Heron


                                                                             Ditto


                                                                               Ditto


09-20-16

0740-0922 hrs./73-81 degrees F (feels like 89)/partly cloudy/7 mph S winds/80% RH with a
heat advisory for the day

Due to the extreme heat, my point of exploration was under the trees at Heron Cove to spend
time with the herons.

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