Great Blue Heron

One of the joys of patroling at Ft. Pickens is the number of Great Blue Herons I get to observe. 

Grand Show

"This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls."

~~ John Muir (1838-1914) John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir

The Great Blue Heron and the ray

Sometimes when I get busy, I forget about photos or video I've taken during patrol and wanted to share with you. This short video clip shows the Great Blue Heron I posted about on Sunday, walking around with just a bit too much breakfast to handle.

The biting flies have been out recently.  That generally happens when the wind blows out of the north, so when you see the picture jerk up and down and make a weird noise, it's because the flies were biting my ankles as I crawled nearer to the heron on my elbows and knees. I was trying to scrape/shrug them off of me!

The way I see it, even the Garden of Eden had a snake, so pests are to be expected in our little paradise, too.

What's for breakfast

Looks like this Great Blue Heron will be having a ray for breakfast, but it also looks like it bit off more than it could chew!

Walk on the Sound

It was finally warm and sunny enough to take a long walk to Range Point and beyond yesterday. One of the rewards was seeing this curious young Great Blue Heron. These birds can be very skittish, but if they get accustomed to people -- especially fishermen who share their catch -- they can get rather bold at times.

As much as I delighted in its curiosity, bold is not always better for either party when it comes to wildlife.

Sunrise on the island

A heron is silhouetted in the sunrise at the western tip of the island. If you click to enlarge the photo you can see Bob Sikes bridge in the distance which spans Santa Rosa Sound.

Injured Great Blue Heron

I was very sad this morning to discover that one of our Great Blue Herons had a wing injury.


I reported it to the Park so that they could try to help it out. These birds are so magnificent that it is frustrating when someone like me can't do anything to help other than report the injury and location.


Another photo of a smaller Great Blue Heron from earlier in my patrol.

Great Blue Heron

I was happy to be able to capture a few more photos of Great Blue Herons at Ft. Pickens this morning.


Graceful and elegant.

Twilight memories

No matter where I go or how long I live, one of my favorite memories of this island will always be of a Great Blue Heron standing motionless and silent atop a dune, in silhouette against the sky.

All caught up

When I first spied this heron from a distance I thought he had been tagged. Getting closer it looked like some type of tube attached to his leg.


It wasn't until I got home and enlarged my photos that I saw he had gotten hooked by a fishing lure.

The good news is that he was able to fly away. Hopefully the lure will work its way free and not get tangled on a tree branch. It's very sad when there is nothing you can do.

I've notified the appropriate people at the Park who are on the look-out for him and I'll be doing the same when I go back on Sunday.