Have you ever seen a great blue heron? (I feel like I should capitalize the heron’s name, anything with “Great” in it’s title seems like it should be capitalized, don’t you think?)

We have lots of them around here, and I’ve taken you out to Kensington to see the heron rookery more than a few times, so of course you’ve all seen a Great Blue.

But have you ever seen one take a bath? (I think this would make a great children’s book title; Have You Ever Seen One Take a Bath?)

I was sitting, a couple of weeks ago, on my brother’s patio looking out over his lake. He has a wonderful view down the lake, but what I was focused on was the tip of his peninsula where a heron appeared to be standing or sitting up to his chest in water while flapping his wings. Or her wings I suppose. But I’m going to assume this was a he.

I had my camera in my lap so I started shooting pictures, trying to figure out what he was doing. Was he fishing? Was he caught in fishing line? Was he dancing to some song only he could hear?

No, he was taking a bath! Unfortunately many of my images are terribly out of focus, but I’ve found you the best of them so you can enjoy what we wittnessed.

He flopped around and preened in the chest deep water for quite a long time, and then he moved over to a sunnier spot and did what all well behaved herons do.

He stood, spread his wings and dried himself in the sun.

Because there’s no nicer way to end a warm bath than to dry off in the evening sunshine.