Thanks for flying over to see these beautiful birds.

During nesting season its easy to spot which of these birds are couples. As you may know, the next step thereafter is frequently parenting:

Oh, we skipped a step:

and afterward

Those incredibly cute fluffy puffballs, the great blue heron chicks, quickly grow larger.

The parents fly in and the chicks eagerly open their mouths to eat what the parents bring back in theirs (gross, but how else are they going to carry back and puree it?)

Just like with our own children, these baby birds must be taught manners. Or, as sometimes happens with our children, parents tolerate the behavior until the children grow up. These hungry chicks are trying to get to the food before their siblings, and the adult great blue heron is looking a little too bitten for comfort here:

Sometimes its difficult to determine which picture I want to share here. This is one of those times, so I'll share both of the next original photos of a great blue heron beside the  pickerelweed without any cropping or tweaking except a bit of shrinking to fit them on this page: