I'm hardly an expert birder, but enjoy being able to observe, photograph and sometimes identify the birds I see. The "identify" part often becomes more challenging if I'm away from my usual New England surroundings, since many birds' habitats don't overlap different regions, but some are pleasantly familiar. The pictures above show the Great Blue Heron rookery in Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia, one of its residents carrying a straw to one of its nests, and another member of the species a few weeks later at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Concord, Massachusetts. They're majestic creatures, and I was glad to be able to collect their portraits on both sides of the continent.
