New Visitor To The Pond

Periodically we get a new visitor to the pond near our house.  Near isn't really the word.  It butts up to the property line and we weren't told about it when we built but after the spring thaw and rains, it isn't too bad.  We get to watch a lot of water fowl and other creatures.

Awhile back I had a white bird show up  that looked like a Blue Herron except it was white.  Smaller but I figured it could have been a young bird.  I sent another blogger, Abe Lincoln, who is an expert on birds the question as to what this bird was.  Turned out to be of the family of Herrons know as an Egrett.

Well, now I am at it again Abe.  This one showed up last night and has been around quite a bit.  I have more pictures if needed but I figure you will tell me it is too of the Herron lineage.  It is rather small and looks like it is carrying three colors.  A brown, a cream and a darker color that I am not sure of on its wings.  Notice the head feathers when it catches the fish.  You'll have to open the picture bigger to see what I mean.

New Bird in the Neighborhood

These pictures were taken on 4/2/10 but I couldn't post them because I didn't know what the bird was.  I knew it looked like a Blue Heron and in fact it is of that family of birds.  It is referred to in different ways but they all lead up to an Egret or a White Egret or even a Great White Egret. There is a post that I follow because the gentleman that has it does real justice to photography of birds. 

Little did I know that we only lived about 4 miles apart for 22 years before I moved out of that area about 12 years ago. This is a link to Abe's site and yes, this is his real name...http://mybirdsblog.blogspot.com/.

Abe tells me in an email that it is mating season and that their plumage will change. In the attached link to allaboutbirds I believe you can see images of the long feather exentions.