A wading bird, the Little Blue Herons can cover a lot of territory as they methodically wade around the swamp in search of food, pulling each leg fully out of the water for each careful step.
The swamp floor has greened up a lot in the last couple of weeks with a variety of plants poking through the water hiding all manor of tasty morsels.
On this day I only saw him pull up vegetation.
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I usually end up discarding any photographs I take of White Ibis: they are dirty with gobs of mud hanging off them, they are surrounded by mud without so much as a blade of grass to add to the composition, they are dirty…you get the picture.
A group of 5 or 6 surprised me in a beautiful pine tree hanging over the trail, looking pretty clean.
They flew up there when one of the local Red-shouldered Hawks was cruising the area.
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Part of the Great Blue Heron mating ritual is building the nest. The male brings sticks to the nest and they both arrange and re-arrange. Here he has just returned with a stick that was well received. I have seen sticks get rejected and the male take it to a different female.
I caught this pair from a bad light angle as he flew back and forth to a nearby tree line for branches. I moved into a better position and he flew off again.
I waited from this better spot, watching her work on the nest, but he didn’t return in the twenty minutes I stood there.
Heron Rookery, Magnolia Plantation Audubon Swamp, 2/1/2017.
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Great Blue Heron shaking it off while fishing under the canopy of a Live Oak on the Ashley River. He had just taken a full body plunge into the water and came back empty.
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This Great Blue Heron was speaking to its mate on a recent foggy morning at the rookery.
No one came so he/she took a trip around the pond, returning to repeat the ritual. I had my shutter speed set too low to get any flight shots.
The Great Blue Heron’s neck feathers were on full display to help with mate attraction.
Most of the pairs and singles were quiet by their nests for the hour we were there, seen below. There were a few Anhinga in the tree, too.
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Magnolia Plantation Heron Rookery, January 16, 2017.
The flying is easy in the open as the male Great Blue Herons bring sticks to their mates.
Until they get close in.
Maneuvering around the trees that support their nests is a bit tricky. Sometimes they circle around several times before attempting a landing.
The mate keeps a watchful eye.
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Magnolia Plantation Audubon Swamp, 01/11/2017.
Reeds around the edge of the canal prevented me from getting the approach.
The rest all happened in less than two seconds.
The Great Blue Heron is a very graceful flyer, despite his size.
No points this time due to an uneven landing.
Is that an Alligator or a log?
It could be either but the Heron prudently took a quick hop over it before settling down.
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Donnelley Wildlife Management Area, November 25, 2016
Shaking his foot, this Green-winged Teal seemed to be bothered by something under the duckweed but he didn’t move on.
He stood with his foot in the air for several minutes, then slowly lowered it, maximizing the stretch.
Finally he settled in with a flash of color showing.
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The Great Blue Herons have arrived at the Audubon Swamp Rookery and wasted no time fixing up their nests and getting ready for their next brood.
They did take some breaks for displays of affection.
The males gather most of the nest material and the females spend quite a bit of time arranging it. This pair was relatively quiet, but others in the rookery did a lot of squawking as they worked on their nests.
