A smaller heron, the immature Little Blue Heron I saw this weekend at a southwestern Lake Erie marsh was slowly foraging the wetlands in the furthest corner from where I parked.
I’ve put off hiking the trail around the marsh this summer, there’s no shade or wooded area around the wetland.
And I’ve always arrived in mid- to late-morning.
Thankfully, the morning weather was relatively cool for late summer; it hadn’t yet reached 70 degrees Farenheit.
A rare bird for northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan, it was the second Little Blue Heron I’ve seen this month.
They typically start migrating in late August, wintering in southeast United States and further south.
You might be wondering where the blue color is, given the bird is named “Little Blue Heron.”
Immature Little Blue Herons (less than a year old) are white, with greenish legs, and a bicolored black-tipped bill.
Adult birds have blue-gray feathers on their body except for beautiful maroon feathers on their neck.
And the adult’s blue bill is black-tipped.
