Well the winner of yesterday’s photography challenge is the great blue heron (I thought I had posted it before shutting the computer down–my bad). These guys are regulars up at Boomer Lake, and I consider it a good day if I manage to see at least two of them on my walk (even if it is a short one).

This one seemed to be acting as king of the mountain yesterday morning (and wasn’t happy with the hawk flying past).

Usually when one thinks of great blue herons–it is where they’re wading through the water hunting their prey, not sitting on top of dead trees overlooking the little cove.

I’m not exactly sure what this one was either looking at or watching for, especially since it wasn’t looking down towards the water.

Then on my return walk, I noticed that it was still on it’s perch–but it was starting to groom it’s feathers….

This is one of the few pictures I’ve managed to get of blue herons grooming themselves where they’re looking upside at me.

Hopefully the temperatures and/or the humidity will slowly start dropping in the coming weeks and I can get back to doing a walk at Boomer Lake on the weekends in the morning. I’m interested to see what birds I might be able to see passing through on their migration to warmer climates in the south.

One other goal for the coming year(s) will be that during any travel, I have to try to get at least one picture of an animal (and preferably not counting visiting zoos or aquariums) on a walk or hike.