Great White Heron [Correction- Great Egret!] Pictures

These Great Egret (thanks to my Anonymous commenter for correcting us) pictures come courtesy of my friend Elizabeth's in-laws. She tells me they love nature and wildlife photography, especially birds. I'm grateful to them for sharing these pictures since it adds to the diversity of photos on my blog.

These are from their trip to Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in Charleston, SC. My guess is these are from the Swamp Garden since the link for that section is a picture of a Great Egret! I'm quite the detective... haha

A very similar species is the The Great White Heron- a morph of the Great Blue Heron, a common New England bird. The surest way to tell them apart is to look at their range (they're only found in Southern Florida). For other clues see the comments section of this post. As my Anonymous commenter pointed out- it would be highly unlikely to see a Great White Heron in South Carolina.

Granted this is a Great Egret and not a Great White Heron, I still find it amusing how similar it is to my recent Great Blue Heron eating habits post. The fish that this egret is eating is much smaller, and certainly a different species than the one my heron was eating, but I think it's still cool that we both got similar shots.

In fact, I saw a Great Blue Heron just this morning while I was commuting to work on the train. We pass over a portion of Boston Harbor/Quincy Bay? It was low tide and he was standing out in the middle of the flats, neck up straight as an arrow. I love how diverse their look can be- depending on how you stumble upon a heron, it can look like a completely different bird.

CSN Review- So many Bird Feeders and Bird Houses to choose from...

A representative from CSN Stores reached out to me to do a review of one of their products. Wow- where to begin... CSN Stores has over 200 online stores, with everything from dinnerware to shower curtains, to hammocks and loveseats! Naturally I gravitate toward bird-themed items. They have some lovely bird whistle tea kettles, and "Living Birds" wall art (stickers). Very cool :)

I'm leaning toward one of the more functional "bird" products though.

Like their amazingly modern bird feeders. Check out the design of this suet hanger and regular tray style feeder. I wonder if they're squirrel-proof? Surely that slick metal must be hard to hang onto with their little feet.

Stay tuned to see what I choose!

Peregrine Falcon in Boston

Back when I was working in the John Hancock Tower I would see a peregrine falcon fly by, but could never get a picture of it. Now that I'm in a different building (also in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston) I've been able to see better views of the falcon, and I've actually seen it perch on the antenna of a building below us. I attempted to take photos with my new HTC Incredible Android phone (which has a 8 mega pixel camera), but it just couldn't zoom in enough.

Then last Friday my boss shouted out "look at that hawk" and sure enough- there was the peregrine falcon perched on the windowsill of our office (several stories up). Though far away, the first picture shows the bird looking directly at us. It was so close! And that last picture was taken right after it took a poop- hence the tail up. hahaha

Great Blue Heron Eating Habits

These Great Blue Heron pictures were taken at Carver Pond on Memorial Day Weekend. We stayed in Bridgewater to avoid traffic and decided to take advantage of all of the wonderful parks in the are. (Earlier this day we went to the Tuckerwood Conservation Area, and then went directly to Carver Pond.)

Anyone want to take a guess at what kind of fish it's eating? I haven't a clue, but I do know it's huge! I would never expect to see a great blue heron eating a fish that large, but that just goes to show how much I know about great blue heron eating habits.

What's funny is that I wasn't even trying to sneak up upon this great blue heron eating its dinner. I was simply walking down to the water to (yes- this is gross) wash off the mess of a mosquito I squashed on my leg that happened to be full of my blood- yuck. Once I was down at the water's edge I saw the great blue heron across the way and of course whipped out my camera.

For those of you local to Massachusetts, here are some links about fishing and visiting Carver Pond (but be forewarned that you'll have to compete with these great blue herons!):

http://www.fishingworks.com/lakes/massachusetts/plymouth/bridgewater/carver-pond/
http://www.hookandbullet.com/fishing-carver-pond-bridgewater-ma/
http://www.bridgewaterma.org/Government/Commissions/PSC/Parks.shtml