Crayfish...it's what's for breakfast!

Took a quick trip over to one of my favorite local spots, the Largo Nature Preserve, this morning.  Lots of activity and I counted 21 species of birds on my walk.  This one, however, was definitely the one I most enjoyed watching.

This is a young (first summer) Little Blue Heron.  He is just starting to molt into his big-boy feathers and shows patches of blue on his back.  By the end of summer, he'll be his adult shade of blue all over.  I have never heard a good theory as to why this particular species of heron spends it's first year white - it certainly doesn't keep well camouflaged.  And, to my knowledge, this is the only heron that spends its first year white rather than some shade of blue/gray or brown.

Anyhoo...you know how I love to catch wild things engaged in some sort of behavior.  I figure a heron eating a nice juicy crayfish (also called mud bug or crawdad) qualifies.   It took the Little Blue a good five minutes to subdue and eat his meal.  

I posted seven other pics on Flickr, starting HERE with a Cattle Egret strutting his stuff

Peg and Kura are arriving at Tampa Airport around 2 this afternoon so I am leaving shortly to drive over to pick them up.  Can't wait to see them!  I've got a nice bottle of Prosecco chilling in the fridge, and have arranged for a beautiful sunny day.  

Seven more sleeps...