We had seen this Great Blue Heron several times on our walk north of Alpine. He never allowed us to get too close. Most often he would take flight before we saw where he was perched. In checking the bird maps, Alpine is at the very northern extreme of his winter habitat. I am most assured that with the 20 degree temps and the snow & ice, he has headed on down Mexico way.

The Great Blue Heron is one impressive bird. This one’s wing span was about 40 inches. Lot of lift has to be generated by these wings.

I was looking through my photos of him from from a week ago and I found this file of him. He was pretty small on the image, but it was sharp and looked pretty nice after some cropping and noise reduction software. Sometimes you don’t know what you have, a familiar refrain of mine.

Be aware of what you find on your journey††nada te turbe†††jim