Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

While out taking pictures of the flowers blooming in my back wildflower meadow a large dark bird flew out of the pond landing in a tree next to the pond. I was able to quickly get a picture and identify it as a Green Heron (Butorides virescens). Shortly afterwards a second Green Heron flew out of the pond and away before I could capture an image. Note that this image was taken with a 10-year-old Nikon 1 V3 camera with a 70-300 mm VR lens. I still find this to be a great camera and lens combination for bird images.

I have previously seen Green Herons at the local Sourland Mountain Preserve in 2012, 2013, and 2016 but not in my backyard pond. I expanded the pond a couple of years ago, and it is now full of frogs attracting Green Herons and Great Blue Herons. Additional Green Heron images are available in my PhotoShelter Gallery.