Thursday, December 19, 2013

heron and egrets ~ 12/19/13 ~ Rec Trail




I never used to look up in the trees while walking along the water, because I was so focused on otters and harbor seals.  One day I startled a night heron near the Coast Guard Pier, and I watched it fly off to perch in a tree.  From then on, I kept an eye on the tree.  Lo and behold, there's a small group of 4 trees, 3 cypress and 1 willow, each with its own night heron for most of the last half of this year.  I wonder if I'll get to see them make a nest or two in the coming months.  Once I started looking up, I also started seeing lots of great egrets and great blue herons (not pictured here) perched all along the Rec Trail. Whoa!  How could I have been so blind to all these large birds above my head?  I don't know if it's only my new found awareness, or if the herons and egrets are actually numerous this year.  For certain, I have seen more snowy egrets than in years past.  They're all so elegant and fashionable.

2 comments:

Imperfect and Tense said...

Fashionable?!

Well, I suppose the Snowy one is topical!

Jennifer said...

Now that is cool!

I love the night heron. I never thought of looking for these birds in the trees. I'll have to remember that!

I also have noticed more Snowy egrets…..and they are fashionable! I took some photos of a bunch of them at the carmel lagoon one time and they were jumping around and moving their wings around…It was quite artistic looking. I never saw that before, but it would be very chic going down the runway!