Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Tricolored Heron: Joe Overstreet Landing

The early morning sunlight was perfect for photographing a Tricolored Heron hunting the lake shore at Joe Overstreet Landing.

Striking at prey, I could not tell for a moment if it had been successful,

Until it lifted its head and deftly flipped the small minnow in its long bill.

Photos like this are a combination of luck and perseverance; luck that the shutter happened to click at that exact moment, and perseverance in that I wasn't satisfied with a few well exposed shots of the little heron and was continuing to shoot frame after frame hoping for something exceptional to happen. 

7 comments:

Chad Oneil Myers said...

That third image is rockin' ;)

TexWisGirl said...

very nice, coy.

Ruth Hiebert said...

Amazing shots,especially the last one.

Elaine said...

Love that you caught that little minnow in the air. What an exceptional shot! Yes, it's all about luck and perseverance, but the luck is more apt to happen the more perseverance you have. Well done!

Montanagirl said...

Don't you love it when that happens?? That's a great shot with the minnow in mid-air.

Brian King said...

I've only seen these herons in photos, but they're one of my favorite! Beautiful shots!

ASHE said...

I was watching a birding TV show last night, and they were at the Viera wetlands! They showed the otters, too. Said it was probably the best place to bird in FL, because it gets subtropic and temperate species at the same time. So cool that you were just telling us all about it!