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Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Green Heron

 

Green Heron at the Lily Pond, Golden Gate Park

Thanks to another photographer who was pointing her FZ80D at something in the Lily Pond, I finally got to see the green heron. I had just struck out trying to find the leucistic junco that was reported a few days ago around the Bunny Meadow, so the green heron was a most welcome sighting. 

A couple of ruby-crowned kinglets took turns hawking for insects over the pond, occasionally landing in a densely branched little tree near me. One of them was showing his ruby crown, and both had blackened feathers around their beaks. Yellow-rumped warblers also used the little tree as a hawking perch.


Magnolias in Forest Hill


The snowy egret was absent from Metson Lake when I rode by there today, replaced by this great blue heron.


The juncos were singing around the sunny Bunny Meadow.


Short Clip of Singing Junco


Ruby-crowned Kinglet at the Lily Pond


Check out this ruby-crowned kinglet's beak-adjacent feathers. I tried to google what's up with that, but all the answers were about captive birds and didn't seem to apply.


A yellow-rumper on the look-out for flying insects.


The green heron snags and eats its prey very quickly, but I got this one shot while its captive was still in its beak.


This is a tighter crop of the previous shot, showing the heron's gelatinous, fish-like prey.


Yellow-rumped warbler on a budding branch.

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