I’d been watching the nest with three Great Blue Heron chicks off and on for a half hour and one of the chicks was getting more adventurous.

The other two were content with their wingercizing but this one was thinking about the big one.

The other two looked on curiously, but were not interested in joining in.

I looked away to check out some Anhinga chick squawking and it had happened! I couldn’t spot him at first, expecting that he’d have gone to the right. Instead he had flapped up to a branch about 15 feet away.
This got his siblings’ attention and they gave him the once over when he returned to the nest a few minutes later.

Quite the star😊 Wonderful to see and photograph!
He sure was. We were ready to go home and I saw him flap, stayed another half hour, LOL.
Awesome series, it happens so fast! He/she does look proud standing tall on the upper branch. 🙂
Thanks, Donna. We went back this afternoon and there were only two chicks in that nest then the third came flying back–cool to see. The GBH chicks in the five or six nests nearby look so ready, flapping their wings and getting out to the edge of their nests. It won’t be long and they will be gone 🙁