Caught in the early evening light

Late afternoon on 7 October 2015, I decided to call in at Fish Creek Park on the way home from a volunteer shift. The weather was beautiful, and I'm supposed to do lots of walking (which I don't). A young couple walking by mentioned that they had just seen a young Black-crowned Night Heron, and I was so lucky that it was still there. From a distance, the bird was so well-camouflaged against the background. It stayed in one place and then, just when the light was fading and I needed to leave, the Heron leaned forward and then climbed down into the water. We had been hoping it would catch one of the many fish that we could see, but it didn't. My battery had just died and, for once, I didn't have a spare battery with me. Usually, when I have seen a Black-crowned Night Heron, it has been far, far away except for one occasion, when a young one flew right over my head at the Frank Lake blind, SE of Calgary.

"Black-crowned Night-Herons are stocky birds compared to many of their long-limbed heron relatives. They’re most active at night or at dusk, when you may see their ghostly forms flapping out from daytime roosts to forage in wetlands. In the light of day adults are striking in gray-and-black plumage and long white head plumes. These social birds breed in colonies of stick nests usually built over water. They live in fresh, salt, and brackish wetlands and are the most widespread heron in the world." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-crowned_Night-Heron/id

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-crowned_night_heron