great blue heron

shot taken from road around noon, after this shot was taken we pulled

in to park and photograph the bird... he took off.

By the shape I can tell that it is a heron.

Up here, we have great blue herons and down in Florida, they have egrets (heron family), so without color, I cannot go further.

Either way, he is looking for food.

After looking in smithsonians handbook: birds of north america: eastern region, the great blue heron is sometimes called crane or blue crane.

this is by local people, and i rememmber my dad calling them that. we have a few here in this area, one just down the road at a small lake.