HeronFest!

Requisite alligator-disturbingly-close-to-potential-meal photo from the Everglades.

The prospect of seeing new heron species in Florida last week was very alluring.  I never tire of the Great Blue Heron's elegant-clumsy silhouette, but I was eager to meet some of its southern cousins.

Little Blue Heron strutting through the Everglades.

My bird fantasies were exceeded--not in number, but in the close-up views I got of the Little Blue Heron and the Tricolored Heron in the Everglades. Some of the birds are acclimated to people, so saunter past or sit still in front of human visitors without much anxiety. (Don't get me started on the idiot who pointed his SELFIE STICK in an Anhinga's face...) This luxury of proximity afforded revelatory views of their plumage which I never would have experienced otherwise.

The Little Blue is, in its non-breeding plumage, grey-blue, but its neck feathers have a very subtle wine-colored aspect as well--not possible to appreciate from afar. The Tricolored's neck has a more obvious russety-wine coloration and buff-colored plumes cascading down its rump.

Tricolored heron in Shark Valley Visitors Center in the Everglades.