A Little Blue Heron Fishing Card

The Little Blue Heron- Egretta caerulea I had the pleasure of watching this juvenile little blue heron fish at the Fitzgerald Lake Conservation Area in Florence Massachusetts. Every once in a while they are seen on Cape Cod but usually never this far inland so it was a real treat! You would find them hunting for fish, frogs, insects, on tidal flats and estuaries but they breed in subtropical swamps in colonies with other herons. Adults have a blue-grey plumage but juveniles like this one hold onto their white feathers. The white feathers may actually keep them safer from predators as they mix in with flocks of snowy and white egrets. Interestingly a white juvenile catches more fish when in the company of snowy egrets. They grow blue plumage as they mature in their first year. A group of herons is called a rookery, a heronry, a battery, a hedge, and my favourite, a posse.