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| A Great Blue Heron hunting in a marshy area, Rock Cut State Park, Illinois; 4/29/2011 |
Great Blue Herons are another one of the earliest birds to arrive back to Northern Illinois this spring, returning by Mid-March. At first I saw only one or two, but by the end of March, there were several hanging around the edges of Pierce Lake in Rock Cut State Park (Above). I also saw them in other area water habitat as well: Nygren Wetlands Preserve (Rockton), Bauman Park and Espenscheid Forest Preserve (Cherry Valley). They are almost always seen in solo, but in the fall they may migrate or roost in flocks. (See my 6/20/2010 post about Great Blue Herons and the "Heron Tree" in Phoenix AZ -
Speaking of seeing Great Blue Herons in Phoenix, AZ, I was able to capture a series of pics of a Great Blue attempting to land in a tree but the branches were too thin to hold it so it more or less crashed into the tree, then took off in an awkward flight. Three of the photos are below:
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| A Great Blue Heron approaching for landing in a less than sturdy tree ... |
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| ... attempting to land, but the branches are too thin to hold it up ... |
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... then it decides to take off and look for another perch
- you can see the broken branch in the tree [middle bottom of pic], Phoenix, AZ; 12/26/2009. |
Love that pseudo-landing. Great set of shots!
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