{"id":5046,"date":"2020-08-27T17:34:56","date_gmt":"2020-08-27T21:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/?p=5046"},"modified":"2020-08-28T21:33:55","modified_gmt":"2020-08-29T01:33:55","slug":"heron-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/?p=5046","title":{"rendered":"Heron Appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

My first encounter with herons began in 1975\u00a0on Gull Island, several miles southwest of my home. \u00a0Johnny Hooper took me there and I was enthralled with the nesting bird life, including gulls, terns, pelicans and a variety of herons. Consequently I revisited the island numerous times in attempts to photograph them. I found the herons to be particularly attractive from an artistic and photographic standpoint.<\/p>\n

Being isolated by Pamlico Sound waters, Gull Island is a haven for nesting waterbirds. On one of my early trips, I saw an elongated neck sticking above the scrubby vegetation. It was a\u00a0 <\/span>nesting tricolored heron minding a newly hatched chick. It did not appreciate my curiosity and on my approach, flew off. I remember the chick looking up at me helplessly. Not lingering long, I walked away, and the adult promptly returned. Ever since I’ve relished opportunities to respectfully shoot herons.<\/p>\n

Three weeks ago, I learned of some wading birds feeding in a pond near the lighthouse. When I got there, I was happy to see several tricolored herons in the mix.<\/p>\n

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Herons are designed for what they do best, hunting shallow water.<\/p>\n

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Looking for a meal, they use their large wings to distract prey.<\/p>\n

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A long pointed bill, concealed in shade, is the tool of choice.<\/p>\n

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This heron’s feeding dance mesmerized me.<\/p>\n

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Last week as we had dinner on our back deck, a Great Egret landed in a live oak next to us. Then I made this unexpected\u00a0grab shot.<\/p>\n

So far, this has been my year of the heron, a symbol of good luck!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My first encounter with herons began in 1975\u00a0on Gull Island, several miles southwest of my home. \u00a0Johnny Hooper took me there and I was enthralled with the nesting bird life, including gulls, terns, pelicans and a variety of herons. Consequently I revisited the island numerous times in attempts to photograph them. I found the herons […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,26,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds","category-outer-banks","category-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5046"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5063,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5046\/revisions\/5063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/photoblog.michaelhalminski.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}