Great Blue Heron high in the Wasatch Mountains – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1/2000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
It has been a week now since I photographed this Great Blue Heron and have been able to get out into the field because of smoke, wind, fire, and rain. There was one morning last week when I could have gone into the field but decided not to go for various reasons. In hindsight I wish I had opted to go because by the next afternoon a fire would break out in the canyon I need to use to drive up into the mountains.
On my last trip up into the Wasatch Mountains I spotted this Great Blue Heron resting next to a creek. The Great Blue Herons that spend the breeding season in the high country fascinate me especially when I compare their choice of habitat to the herons that live down in the marshes and wetlands that surround the Great Salt Lake where finding prey seems it has to be easier. While I am photographing the herons in the mountains I often wonder where they go during the winter when the cold, snow, and frozen creeks would make it next to impossible for them to survive. Maybe they head to the wetlands in the lower, flatter parts of the mountains or even down into the Salt Lake Valley.
What I do know with absolute certainty is that I enjoy photographing the Great Blue Herons that I find up in the Wasatch Mountains during the spring, summer, and fall especially because I know that the mountains were named for a Shoshoni leader who was named with the Shoshoni term wasattsi, meaning “blue heron”.
Air Quality Index August 19 2021
I won’t be heading out into the field today because it is supposed to rain off and on until about 6 pm tonight and because the air quality sucks this morning. When I woke up this morning and checked on the air quality I wasn’t surprised to see that Salt Lake City had the worst air in the world. Yesterday it smelled like a wet campfire here because the smoke from western wildfires mingled with the rain.
I’m hoping that as this weather front moves out later today that the air quality gets better because tomorrow is supposed to be sunny. Whether I can count on it being clear is another story.
Mia
Click here to see more of my Great Blue Heron photos plus facts and information about this species.
My favorite “dinosaur!” 🙂 Hope that you get some decent air quality and that the rain helps with the local fires. Wish we could get some rain to help with the Northern California fires, as a lot of your poor AQI is coming from those.
Love the blue heron. Of course. And hope (fervently) that your air quality improves. Dramatically.
That is interesting how the Great Blue Heron was accorded so much importance by the Shoshoni. I too am always happy to get a good view of one.