THIS WEEK’S THEME: A WETLAND IN FIVE BIRDS

Five very different birds reveal five ways of making a living in the wetlands of Merced National Wildlife Refuge.

**This happens to be Blog Post #700 – I have been doing this for 7 years now!

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​​​​Scientific name

Nycticorax nycticorax

Taxonomic group

Ardeidae — Herons, Egrets & Bitterns

Click photograph to view full size

A photograph is worth a thousand words, but the story makes it worth a few more.

AT MERCED NWR

Black-crowned Night-Herons are mostly nocturnal and can sometimes be difficult to find and photograph during the day. When a daytime roosting spot was reported along the west end of the tour route at Merced National Wildlife Refuge, I left home in the predawn darkness, hoping to arrive at first light.
As I rounded a bend in the tour route, I spotted a distant Black-crowned Night-Heron perched atop the reeds. From there, the road gradually carried me closer and closer as I crept along as quietly as the car would allow.
Eventually, I reached just the right angle. The early morning golden-hour light broke through and illuminated the heron against the tangle of darker wetland vegetation.

IMAGE DETAILS

LOCATION INFORMATION: Merced National Wildlife Refuge · Merced County, California · February 2, 2022
EQUIPMENT INFORMATION: Canon EOS R5 · Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS USM
SETTINGS INFORMATION: 500mm · ƒ/7.1 · 1/1250 sec · ISO 160