When I originally posted this series of photos, I incorrectly identified this magnificent bird as a Yellow-crowned Night Heron. It is in fact and quite obviously a Great Blue Heron.
As I state in "At the Trailhead, The Origin of 'While on a Walk'" and in the Disclaimer on my homepage, I have a great love of the outdoors, but my expertise is in photography, not ecology. I make every effort to be reasonably certain any plant or animal I identify in the blog is correct.
I got this one wrong primarily because I rushed to get the post online and didn't follow the meticulous protocol I usually follow. My thanks to the commenter who brought this error to my attention.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
On my walk yesterday, there was a great blue heron standing by the small embayment just downstream of the U.S. 90 bridge. After walking under the Mitchell Street bridge, as soon as I could see the embayment, I saw the heron standing in the vegetation on the river bank. When I would come to a spot that would give another good angle, I took a few more photos of it. (Two of the photos below were also in yesterday's post.)
This heron didn't move from where it was standing when I first saw it, but stretched its neck and raised its head as I walked closer:
Mr Ewers,
ReplyDeleteJust happened upon your blog since I was looking for current sightings of Yellow-Crowned Night Herons. Looking at your photos I believe it is of a Great Blue Heron due to the long slender neck, longer bill, yellow eye, and other markings. The YCN Herons are stockier with a more upright stance, black shorter bill, red/orange eye, solid gray front body with some white in the wing feathers. However, I love the fact that you enjoyed the bird so much. I also photograph birds!
Thank you for drawing my attention to this error. If you come across any other birds I have incorrectly identified on the blog, please feel free to let me know.
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