Immature Black-crowned Night Heron

While visiting Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge I was busy photographing various water birds along a small tidal creek when I noticed subdued movement in an overhanging tree.  Watching closely I was soon able to make out the shape of a bird that blended superbly with its surroundings, an immature Black-crowned Night Heron.  Sitting quietly and watching intently, I picked out more of these well camouflaged birds as the morning wore on.  While these birds are known feed alone from dusk to dawn and roost in flocks during the day.  I consider myself fortunate to have found myself in a spot where these well hidden birds had chosen to spend their day. 

 

 

 

Lifers: Without & With a Tripod

Immature Black-crowned Night Heron

It's always a pleasure adding new species to ones wildlife image collection.  Birders identify their first sighting of a species as seeing a lifer, as in adding it to their life list.  For me as a wildlife photographer a lifer occurs when I capture the birds image.  This post features three lifers all captured during my recent Florida visit.

Taking a stroll along a well worn path at the Circle B Bar Reserve I had decided to travel light and carried the Canon 60D with the 100-400 L IS lens, leaving the pod behind.  Spotting the heron in a deeply shaded area I immediately regretted leaving the tripod behind.  My only option was to brace against a tree, increase the ISO to 640, shoot at 1/50sec and hope for the best.

American Bittern

Shortly after leaving the black-crowned night heron I noticed movement in the deep ravine to the other side of the path and a closer look revealed this American bittern standing perfectly still hoping to avoid detection.  Once again handicapped by the lack of the tripod I braced against a tree capturing this image at 1/50 sec. 

Lesson learned, never leave the tripod behind!  The image stabilization and the handy bracing trees helped a great deal but the image quality would have been much better shot from a steady support.   

Greater Yellowlegs

However when I encountered this greater yellowlegs feeding in the shallows of Lake Kissimme I was ready with the 600 F4 IS mounted solidly on the tripod.  The results are worth the extra effort.