great blue heron

Another inflight shot of this magnificent bird. He flew very low and incredibly close to me when I snapped this shot. It was mid morning with an obviously overcast sky, but the lighting was perfect.

This guy allowed me to get a ton of different of shots from two different vantage points. I thought that this shot captured the cleverness of the bird :)

There are several of these beautiful birds nesting on a large lake about 5 miles from my home. They were flying over to a nearby island and gathering sticks to build their nests. I was able to snap a few nice shots, but I wish I had a bigger zoom to get some better shots of them.

I never know if this bird perches like this to see any action on the surface of the water, or just resting. It's high up in a mangrove tree.

This one was right below me when I got out of my car.

Filmed on my rowboat on the Severn River near Annapolis, Maryland in August of 2008.

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias subsp. wardi) Sexes similar. Photographed in launch mode in Anauhac National Wildlife Refuge, northwest of High Island abutting East Bay, Chambers County, Texas, USA. Coastal marshes and prairies at 2-3 m (6-10 ft) elevation.

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias subsp. wardi) Sexes similar. Photographed in Anauhac National Wildlife Refuge, northwest of High Island abutting East Bay, Chambers County, Texas, USA. Coastal marshes and prairies at 2-3 m (6-10 ft) elevation. I have to go to the frozen north (Chicago area)...

No heron was digitally harmed in the making of this image. It's up there somewhere, above the frame.

Great Blue on blue sky ;)

More from the heron that stalked me.

Two days later I again saw the heron on the meadow and again tried my stalking technique. Only this time the heron spotted me first and turned the tables on me. I stood stock still as he approached, stopping now and then to see what I would do. This was about as close as he came. We stood there...

This one is a bit cropped, just to trim away some extraneous stuff and focus more on the eye. I found that heron eye quite mesmerizing. Meanwhile, I had a great day at London Wetlands Centre today ... until :eek!: ... until my 80-400 lens decided to freeze up on me. Focus ring simply will not...

As you can see, I did get quite close to the heron. Close enough that I couldn't fit him all into the frame at full zoom 400mm. As long as he didn't seem bothered, I stayed. When he gave me a glance and started moving away, I turned and left. I set "wetlands, but dry" as the habitat...

This Great Blue Heron is apparently a regular visitor to Sonoma meadow. Some passersby claimed that they watch him every day and that he's hunting for gophers. Good for him! We could do with fewer gophers! But I didn't see him catch any :( I did get pretty close, though. Same passersby said...

Heron fishing in the surf.

Shy...

Bibo then landed on the rooftop of a nearby house.

I focussed on a few Juncos in the undergrowth when I suddenly saw that big bird ("Bibo") out of the corner of my right eye. I immediately swerved the camera and caught it to fill the frame of my camera, it was so close that no post cropping was required. In fact, in some shots of this...