This juvenile heron was a bit cautious when it came to stepping into the water and for good reason. Young herons are inexperienced and many drown because they haven't figured out how to determine the depth of the water. In this case the water was fairly shallow, but the bird never did step into it. I watched one young heron stand on the end of a dock and peer into the water for 1/2 an hour, moving towards it like he might step off the dock and then changing its mind and moving back from the edge...good thing, the water was way too deep for it to stand in.

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