CHECK OUT OUR PHOTOS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS STORY -

You’ve seen it many times.

Often as you head to the Buckeye, just to the west of the Spring Street bridge. Or, you spotted it in the village park pond.

If you’ve heard a sound like a very loud, rusty railroad freight car on an even more rusty and scratchy rail - then you’ve heard it.

It’s the great blue heron of Bluffton and we have several of the birds. The Icon has photographed these solitary birds year round.

Here is a collection of those photographs. A zoom lens is required for the perfect photo, and often our zoom lens is not on the camera when we spot a bird.

The great blue is the largest North American heron. It has head-to-tail length of 36–54 inches, a wingspan of 66–79  inches, a height of 45–54 inches, and a weight of 4–7.9  pounds.

As you can imagine, its diet includes small fish. It is also known to feed on shrimp, crabs, aquatic insects, rodents, and other small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and birds, especially ducklings.

We’ve spotted the heron along the Big and Little Riley in Bluffton and in the rural areas, the Buckeye, the pond at The Centre and the pond at the village park.