Harris Neck NWR

The highlight of today was visiting Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge. I had a fabulous time photographing birds there. In tonight’s post, I am going to focus on some of the big birds that I saw. This photo is of an Anhinga, sometimes called the snake bird because of its long neck. I know that I said that most of my posts would be focused more on the biking rather than the birds, but this will be one of the exceptions. I had enough time to do some preliminary editing, and there were so many wonderful birds. However, the culling, tagging, and editing did take a fair bit of time, so my commentary will be a bit more limited tonight.

One of the first birds I saw at Bluebill Pond in the refuge was a Glossy Ibis. The Ibis have long downward curving bills.

Here are a pair of White Ibis. Like the Glossy Ibis, they also have the long downward curving bills. The birds only get their solid white color as adults.

In contrast, here is an immature White Ibis.

In yesterday’s post, I included a fairly poor picture of a Little Blue Heron. Here is a close up, showing off their beautiful coloring.

In a reversal from the White Ibis, the immature Little Blue Heron’s, such as the one above, are white before growing into their blue color as adults. The green legs are an easy way to distinguish the immature Little Blue Herons from Great Egrets.

Great Egrets have black legs as are shown on this photo.

While this is not a great photo, Snowy Egrets also have black legs; however, they have bright yellow feet and black beaks compared with the yellow beaks of the Great Egrets. Also, they are significantly smaller than Great Egrets.

The Roseate Spoonbill’s beak is extremely distinctive, so much so that it gives the bird its name.

Looping back to herons, this is a Tricolored Heron.

I also saw one Green Heron. Unlike the other herons here, the Green Heron does not have a long neck. In this manner, it is more similar to Black-Crowned Night Herons and Yellow-Crowned Night Herons.

Finally, I will end on this Wood Stork since this photograph is so much nicer than the one included in yesterday’s post.