Friday, January 07, 2011

Great Blue Heron





I'm not sure if was because of the cold weather, but the great blue herons weren't as skittish as normal in Florida this year. Normally, they would fly away as soon as I got my camera out. They didn't seem to like anyone stopping to watch them, even from 50 feet away. However, I was able to get within six feet of them this year and now have close-up images that escaped me in the past.

The first photo shows the bird getting into a hunting stance with neck extended and leaning towards the surface of the pond. I was hoping this bird would catch a fish while I was so close because I had already photographed the bird catching fish on two previous occasions that week but it was still pretty dark and the images weren't very good. I guess the fish didn't come close enough because soon after I made the image, the heron relaxed again.

I noticed that the birds like to hunt with their backs to the sun and that made sense to me because there wouldn't be any reflections of the bright sun on the water. The large bird must have decided to move to a new fishing spot because it started to walk away from me to another spot on the edge of the pond.

The third photo was taken on a different occasion and I was able to get even closer before the bird flew off. I liked the colours of the beak as the early morning sunlight filtered through it.

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