Great Egret
These photos were taken last week in The Villages, FL. Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the photo. Enjoy!
Little Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron, Tri-colored Heron & Double Crested Cormorants
Snowy Egret
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Great Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron
These all were spotted here in The Villages, FL in recent days. Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of that picture. Enjoy!
Little Blue Heron
Great Blue Heron
Tri-colored Heron
Juvenile Little Blue Heron
Adult Little Blue Heron
Juvenile Little Blue Heron
The juvenile Little Blue Heron is all white until nearly an adult. Once and adult, the bird has purple-blue feathers, a grey-blue bill, and yellow-green legs and feet. These are called herons but are actually members of the egret family of wading birds.
Juvenile Little Blue Herons closely resemble the Snowy Egret, but the difference is in the color of the bill and a lack of yellow just above the bill. Snowy Egrets have a black bill. Snowy Egrets also have mustard yellow-colored feet. I took these photos here in The Villages, FL. Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the photo. Enjoy!
Juvenile Little Blue Heron
Snowy Egret
Adult Little Blue Heron
Older Juvenile Little Blue Heron
Snowy Egret
Adult Little Blue Heron
This Little Blue Heron was spotted hunting in a very shallow rainfall water retention basin that was almost empty. This pond is in the Souliere Villas neighborhood in The Villages, FL.
We only occasionally see Little Blue Herons here. They are a wonderful member of the egret family and start out as white juveniles. They closely resemble Snowy Egrets but do not have bright mustard-yellow feet and do have a bluish bill when in their white plumage. They eat fish, frogs, small tender turtles, baby alligators, aquatic snails and larger aquatic insects. Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the picture.
Little Blue Heron
Hooded Mergansers, herons, a Pied-billed Grebe, Florida Mottled Ducks, and a Lesser Scaup Ducks were spotted on Nov. 12, 2019 at a neighborhood park pond here in The Villages, FL. Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the picture. Enjoy!
Florida Mottled Ducks
Drake Hooded Merganser
Hooded Merganser Ducks, Hen Lesser Scaup Duck and Pied-billed Grebe
Tri-Colored Heron and Little Blue Heron
Pied-billed Grebe
Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of the picture. Enjoy!
Sandhill Cranes
A pair of Sandhill Cranes and a Little Blue Heron were seen at two ponds here in The Villages, Florida last week. I saw the cranes on the shore of the small pond near Live Oaks Park on Morse Blvd. near CR 466, and the Little Blue Heron was at Freedom Pointe Lakes (The larger lake). By the way, it has been very windy on several days here so a bit of blown-in trash is evident in the pictures. Most of our shorelines are very clean here and this is a rare occurrence.
Both of these are wading birds that eat fish, frogs, aquatic snails, larger aquatic insects, small shoreline snakes, baby waterfowl, and baby Alligators. The cranes also will eat grains and seeds. I love seeing these beautiful big birds here! Please click on the thumbnail image to see the slightly larger version of that photo. Enjoy!
Sandhill Cranes
Little Blue Heron
Sandhill Crane
