Little Blue Heron

Yesterday morning I headed to the coast (what's new, right?) to see if anything got pushed around in the nights winds. However, it seems like most things were dumped further south in PA and NJ. The strong winds continued throughout the morning so I focused my attention on studying what birds were around instead of searching for passerines.

A lot of people don't study birds. That is, a lot of people don't take the time to re-look at a Great Blue Heron after they've seen thousands. They pass over them without really studying their shape, size, patterning, etc. Sometimes I'm guilty too. However, its important to realize that studying such birds puts you in a better place to realize something like a Grey Heron. (Not to mention all birds are enjoyable!)

Anyway, yesterday I was studying Egrets in Rye Harbor Marsh to prepare myself to one day find a Little Egret. There was a darker blob to the left of these birds which I passed off as a crow as it was really small looking and iridescent. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I saw it extend its neck and watched it emerge from the marsh grasses; It was clearly a Little Blue Heron and I clearly shouldn't have assumed dark blob = crow. Unfortunately my camera was dead and without a memory card so I was only able to manage a few phone-scoped shots including this one:

eBird tells me that this is my 200th NH year bird for 2010, which is remarkably 8 ahead of the 192 I had tallied by May 6th last year! (No, I'm not planning on breaking 308.)