Saturday, April 09, 2011

Camera Critters: Great Blue Heron

Lately our weather has established a pattern of the warmest and brightest days occurring during the week accompanied by cool damp dreary weekends.  Today was no exception with heavy clouds and temps hovering in the lower 40s.  Not allowing a day off work to pass me by I headed out with the boat shortly after daybreak.  A bass tournament was in progress when I arrived at the lake; an event the I believe was responsible for the absence of ducks but the fishermen didn't seem to bother the thirty or more horned grebes and three loons busy feeding on perch spawn. 

The best photo op of the day happened when I located this Great Blue Heron that allowed me to drift the boat reasonably close to it location.  The heron used a fishing tactic which I had never observed before.  Instead of wading slowly in the shallows as most do this bird flew from stump to stump checking for prey holding close to the structure.  The tactics were working well for the bird as I witnessed it strike a number of times.  This last photo caught the bird just as it recovers from an unsuccessful strike while water drips from its bill.


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8 comments:

Lois Evensen said...

Wonderful images! Just love the dripping water in the last image.

Ruth Hiebert said...

That last image is pretty special.Great capture.

Montanagirl said...

Love your Heron shots. That second one with the water dripping is very nice.

wildcatwoods said...

Lovely capture of the heron. Like the first one with the grasses in the back ground.

Carolina Mts

Les Barr said...

A nice capture of the Heron, Coy. I don't see much of them around here for some reason. Only saw one, and that was down at the Heritage Center along the River.

Yes, the weather has not been very good lately. Clouds one day and cool, then maybe some sunshine. Wish that Mother Nature would make up her mind.

Les

Elaine said...

A bass tounament and a gray day together--yikes! You got some lovely heron shots anyway. Nice weather during the week and bad on the weekend seems to happen a lot. One of the best parts of being retired is that you can take advantage of the nice weekday weather.

Chris said...

Fantastic heron shots Coy... I love the composition too!!

Meggie said...

I witnessed my first blue herron back to the dredged lake in my area even though the lake isn't yet entirely filled. It was such a wonderful site. Makes me hopeful that all habitat will be restored and all critters will return.