Portrait of a young Night Heron

This is a bit of a lazy shot - night herons are extremely easy to photograph as they just pretty much sit around during the day, resting.  As their name suggests, they do their hunting and foraging at dusk and during the night.  This is a young black-crowned night heron who was probably born on the grounds of the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary.  The Sanctuary grounds have become home to a rather large colony of BC Night Herons and every year at this time, the adults nest and raise young.  

Most herons do not breed until they are two years of age, but they are often seen hanging around the colonies that form during breeding season.  Based on his overall brown color, this is most likely a first-year juvenile.  I've posted a second-year juvenile on Flickr for comparison HERE   and the following five shots are also from today.  

I took the lazy way out today and after a quick trip to Lake Seminole (where I wasn't quick enough to catch one of the osprey chasing and young bald eagle) I headed over to the Sanctuary.  I always leave a few dollars when I visit - they do amazing work there rehabbing all sorts of birds.  They usually always have a large number of pelicans (both brown and white at this time of year) and cormorants who are being rehabilitated, most of them after encounters with fishing lines/nets.  Thank goodness for groups like this for the work they do in saving these birds from certain death.  And the great thing is that most of the birds that come to them are able to be released back into the wild once their injuries heal.  And, they also look out for all the "free birds" who gather on the grounds to nest.  If we were staying in FL, I'd probably volunteer to help them.  

Well, the rain still hasn't started, but it is windy and gloomy out now.  A good afternoon to pack, I guess.  Hubs is cooking dinner tonight (making me a very happy wifey!)  Tomorrow we head for the Space Coast of FL where I plan to do some photography in the afternoon at Merritt Island NWR, then at Viera Wetlands.  Thursday morning, I'll be meeting up with Sefferdog at Viera where we are hoping to capture some magic early morning light!

Thank you for all the lovely comments on my two little owlets from yesterday.  You can be sure that I'll be checking back on them in the weeks to come.  Such cute things!

Toodles,
Debbi