Great Big Great Blue Heron Babies

Santa Cruz Harbor, Santa Cruz, CA
June 2, 2021

I had heard there were great blue heron nests in the trees by the Santa Cruz Harbor. It took me a while to find them but I finally located the birds high in a large eucalyptus. Along side them were double-crested cormorant nests. I don’t know why they were all in that one tree when there were many to choose from. The young herons I saw were quite large and already fledging. You could only tell they were not quite adults by a few fuzzy feathers on their heads and their shorter tails. One fledgling was flying from branch to branch and exploring what its wings could do as well as the effects of gravity.

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