“Blue the Great”
When we were younger and had kids living at home, we always had a pet. I grew up with a cat and a couple of dogs, and my kids had the dogs, Casey and Josie. Now, the kids are all gone and we have “Blue”. We don’t have to clean up after Blue, he doesn’t need to be on a leash, he feeds himself and is usually pretty quiet. Our new “pet” is a Great blue heron that lives in Iona Island Marsh. He’s a youngster that has been with us for about 3 months now. He’ll probably hang out here for a few more weeks or as late as the end of October.
“Blue” weathering a storm on June 8, 2025
I first noticed and photographed Blue on June 8th in a heavy downpour. I’ve seen plenty of Great blue herons over the years in Iona Island Marsh and didn’t give it much thought until he kept reappearing. I spend a fair amount of time checking out the marsh as it is close by and rather productive for wildlife. I began to notice that he was certainly a regular. I could pretty much count on him being somewhere on site almost every time I visited.
Blue just hanging out, June 14, 2025
As I’ve said, Great blue herons are frequent visitors to the marsh. So how do I know that each time a see the heron, it’s “Blue”? Well, in the interest of transparency, there is no way to be absolutely sure, but this bird hangs out in the same general area “all the time” and has certain distinguishing characteristics. I keep referring to the bird as “he”. but the sexual dimorphism in Great blues in subtle at best. Males are a bit larger and will develop longer ornamental plumes in breeding season. Without a second bird of the opposite sex in breeding season, it is very difficult to discern the sex of these birds.
In flight, July 9th
Our bird is generally pretty sedate when we’ve seen him….skulking about in the cattails in the shallow pools looking for some unsuspecting killifish to come swimming by. On occasion, however, he is a bit more animated. The image below shows him prancing about and vocalizing quite loudly.
August 5th
One thing I can be pretty sure of is that this a young bird. Juvenile Great blues do have distinguishing features that indicate that the bird is a youngster. I shot the image of “Blue” below yesterday, Aug 29, and these features all show up rather nicely.
August 20th
Juvenile Great blues have no plumes at the back of the head. You can see “Blue” is indeed lacking said plumes. Next, the iris of the juvenile bird is yellow like the mature heron, but the lores are dark with a yellow interior. The upper bill of the immature bird is slatey and the lower bill is yellow. Mature birds have a striking yellow to orange bill (except when they don’t!) Some more northern birds will have a bill that looks more like our heron with more black in it. Just to confuse us!
August 28, 2025
Finally, the juvenile Great blue has more streaking on the neck and breast and feathers on the body have a brownish hue.
And so, we will continue to monitor the movements of our new pet”Blue” and see when and if he decides to head south. Some Great blues in the lower Hudson Valley have been known to hang on until December or even spend the winter here if the weather is not too cold. Stay tuned…….
