Somewhere in Vermont:

Beware the Eastern Bloodsucking Conenose

Portion of my neighbor’s log cabin, decorated for their daughter’s wedding yesterday. And will show the ‘altar’ too. It was a beautiful day.

My ‘like’ button is only working about half time, so I will just say I love all your photos so far today. I love old barns, log houses and structures, and nature photos always so today is particularly appealing to me.

I am loving today's photos. What a wonderful collection of rustic buildings!

The sunset photos are stunning.

Jim, I like the angle of your shot.

Imgd, the western cousin of your conenose lives out here. Locally, they are called kissing bugs because they tend to bite people on the face. Their bites are nasty resulting in large swollen red welts that take a long time to subside.

Gorgeous setting for a wedding, OutsidePlaying.

Great capture, gyr_falcon!

Huh...I never realized herons would "field" hunt...we've only ever seen them around our pond.

Dallas Aquarium

There's aren't a lot of ponds in the arid parts of California, especially not in the dry summertime. I'm not sure where gyr is. There tend to be herons around the Bay Area, near ocean and also the salt water bay, and I know some people with koi ponds who've lost fish to them.

I lost most of the fish in my pond to great blue heron. Not a fan.

find yourself a statue of a heron! I found, back when I had a koi pond, the real herons stayed away... Herons are solitary birds.

The heron photo was taken at a small wilderness park near Coto de Caza, in south Orange County. There are ponds and water scattered around the area, at golf courses, urban runoff streams, some lakes, and water treatment ponds. Herons here are opportunistic--I've seen them hunting gophers beside the treatment ponds at the San Joaquin Marsh in Irvine.

Happy2b, that is also a Great Blue Heron. They can be found throughout the United States.

ETA: ??? Did the photo fly away, or am I on the wrong thread? lol

They also hang around the rice fields in the Sacramento Valley. The Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge which also includes the Delavan, Butte Sink, Colusa, Sutter and the Sacramento River Refuges total about 35,000 acres and is made up mostly of seasonal and permanent wetlands. It s home to many types of wildlife including the blue heron and the snowy egret. Migrating ducks and geese are also found at these places and it is quite a sight to see thousands of waterfowl foraging and resting in this habitat

Interesting...thanks!