Saturday, June 14, 2008

Air Brakes: Great Blue Heron





With landing gears down and reverse thrust activated, a Great Blue Heron comes in for a smooth touch down.

I have photographed the Great Blue Herons many times over the past few months. They have been wading, standing, catching fish, flying, and taking off; but today for the very first I captured this magnificent bird as he was landing.




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24 comments:

  1. WOW! How close were you? That is stupendous! I never got a shot of landing or take off. And now I can't get any shots because the blackbird nests are busy busy busy and they are mobbing the herons and hustling them out of the ponds.

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  2. Beautiful shot and that is one large bird!

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  3. Such a beautiful shot! Love that you caught him spreading his wings. Breathtaking :)

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  4. Beautiful photo, Salty. I am impressed with the action shot you have captured with this Heron!

    Thanks for the nice comments on my blog and my header photo is one of my favorite fly fishing lakes famous for the cutthroat trout that I just love catching!
    Mountain Retreat

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  5. Fabulous shot! I just saw one of these for the first time today...and posted it on my blog.
    Your shot makes me long for a new lens!!!!

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  6. Love your description of the landing process. Beautiful tones on the Heron's wings.
    Thanks Salty for your kind comments on my post. We do go back a bit don't we? I wish we would hear from Faye too. I keep checking in and leaving a comment but haven't heard anything.
    Have a wonderful weekend.

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  7. Now that is a wonderful shot, he is really big

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  8. This is absolutely amazing! I have tried and tried... and tried some more to get a good shot of the one who visits our pond, but I just can NOT get close enough. I think you need to come visit and teach me ;-) This is fantastic!!!

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  9. Salty: What a wonderful moment to capture. You outdid yourself today. The colors are outstanding with that dark background.
    Happy Fathers Day, I hope you have a great time.

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  10. Brilliant image. I love these birds, but they are still elsuive to my camera. Great post

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  11. A beauty.

    Happy Father's Day to the fathers in your family and to you, Salty.

    I hear cardinals, Carolina wrens, grackle babies wanting fed, and other nature sounds and the sky in the east is getting brighter and the air is cool and the doors are open and so are the windows. I am blessed on this Father's Day morning.

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  12. Nicely catched with the camera, love the picture!

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  13. There are blue heron on the lake around which I walk in the mornings. When they fly overhead I'm always amazed at their wing span. I've never captured a photo of one. Yours in a beauty!
    Happy Father's Day, Salty!

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  14. all your photos are so special sandy

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  15. Absolutely incredible and so beautiful!

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  16. Hi Salty..
    It sounds like a great collection of shot you have of these bired.. and 'magnificent' is a good word for them.. When I was young these were rarely seen as at that time the canal was disused, the local rivers were very polluted. The waters which would have support thjese was fish for sport.. and these birds were not welcome and were shot. I am happy to say we see these a lot, and the canal is now cleaned up and is a wildlife haven.. as is the river which as many birds like heron, King fishers and even a cormerant paid this inland water way a visit.

    I never tire of seeing them.

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  17. Those wings! So big and powerful yet graceful!

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  18. Fantastic shot - I love seeing his wing span!

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  19. Funny! It's amazing to watch them catch fish.

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  20. That is a beautiful action shot! I just posted pictures of a Great Blue Heron nest here and two 'lumps' that are their chicks!

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Thanks again
Coy