great blue heron

Tag

By Jordan Lake Neighborhood: Ranger Cove, 5 photos, 06/30/2018
Ranger Cove, Jordan Lake Neighborhood
 
The glitter of a ruby-throated hummingbird against the soft glow my lens made of the background foliage.
A quizzical northern cardinal made me smile.
 
Bright eyes, startling gold against the iridescent deep purple-black of a common grackle.
The snowy egret’s translucence allows you to see the bones and joints of its wing: of its shoulder, elbow, wrist and fingers.
Note too that his feet have yellow socks!
 
Perched probably 60 feet up at the top of a tree, it is a little startling to see an immature great blue heron surveying the cove.
Actually great blue herons of all ages often spend a great deal of time way up in tall trees.

By doc ellen is NOT upside down …
doc ellen is NOT upside down
neither is the great blue heron way up the tree …
and the tree, well …
my friend and I were sitting under that tree
when the great blue heron flew in, landing directly above us
the bird proceeded to watch us down below as we looked up at him
I got to thinking that if the bird flew out I could get a neat slo mo video…

By The BIG One …
The BIG one doesn’t always get away …
this immature great blue heron caught this fish 
at the Jordan Lake Dam in the fog early this morning.
I didn’t get to see if he managed to swallow the fish.
The heron headed for the far bank and I lost him in the shadows.

By JL Neighborhood, 5 photos 8/23/2017

In between watching eclipses and aerobatic bald eagles, I have kept my eye on other interesting critters …
This is father osprey plowing into the lake for a fish.


A white-tailed buck very calmly glanced my way and then went back to browsing.


Something must have tickled this great blue heron’s toes – he sure made a spectacular leap and didn’t take flight!

It was great fun watching the pileated woodpecker stop his hammering just long enough for me to get his portrait.


The three brassy little skipper butterflies were sharing a button bush blossom.

By Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge trip 8 photos 7-27-2017
A trip to Lake Mattamuskeet needs to be on everybody’s  list.
 
It was at Lake Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge that the Bald Eagle was re-introduced to NC.
 
The Bald Eagles then made their way inland to Jordan Lake.
 
Try your hardest to get there at sunrise – they are almost always spectacular from the causeway!
 
Adult bald eagle way across the front impoundment at Mattamuskeet.  
This time of the year the eagles can be hard to find at Mattamuskeet.
 
The lake and its surrounding area has beautiful cypress trees.
 
 
The still waters of the lake and the impoundments often give reflections that are wonderfully detailed.
Great Blue Heron fishing.
 
 
The insect life at Mattamuskeet is very diverse – with many different dragonflies.
Did you see the dragonfly shadow?
 
 
The white-tailed deer really enjoy the browsing at the lake.  
 
 
The yellow-billed cuckoo is also found at Jordan Lake.
 I hear rather than see them most of the time.
 
 
The zebra swallowtail butterfly is the only swallowtail in our region with white stripes.