Bad Hair Day (Black-Crowned Night Heron)

Black-Crowned Night Heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, having a bad hair day.  Ever get out of bed and just not want to do anything about that mop of hair?  I guess Herons get those days too.  ;-P

Where do Night Herons Go During the Day?

Night Heron a.k.a. Black-Crowned Night Heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, San Diego, California. Night herons come out at night to fish in the surf. If you go down the beach with a flashlight you'll see them in little groups of 1-3 looking for small fish in the wave wash. They're pretty hard to spot during the day, however, generally keeping out of sight. I spotted this one up high in a huge old Eucalyptas tree by the harbor near Mission Bay.

Black-crowned Night Heron

Black-crowned Night Heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, Mission Beach. The grunion were running tonight, at least the charts said they were. Note, however, that the charts do not say what beach they are spawing at. I drove down to Mission Beach hoping to snap a few pictures of the amazing grunion spawns. Well, the sand turtles were there in great numbers, possibly hoping for some grunion eggs. The Black-crowned Night Herons were also out in numbers, also likely longing for a grunion feast. As Black-crowned Night Herons are typically nocturnal, however, they might simply be beach regulars. Sadly, the Grunion never showed up to the party or at least not in any numbers. We went up and down the beach with flashlights and there did not appear to be anthing looking like a grunion spawning in the sand. I did see the herons snap up a little silver fish that was roughly sardine size (grunion candidate). However, there's no way to know what it was as it was up in that sharp beak and then down into the gullet in one fell swoop.