Herons Fishing

This gallery shows two different Great Blue Herons mostly fishing. The first heron was photographed at the Great Plains Nature Center in Wichita, Kansas. This heron flew away as dusk approached. The second heron, seen in the last eight photos, is a regular visitor to a nearby park. It spent a long time during the day looking for fish and finally caught one as night closed in. Fishing, for herons as for people, requires a lot of time waiting patiently. They are mostly completely motionless and only occasionally move slowly and very unobtrusively to change location. The fish cannot tell their legs from plants when they are standing still. When they see a fish, they strike very deliberately and quickly.