When they get into a long glide you can’t help but think of ‘Dragons’.
They make it look so easy to fly.
Great Blue Heron.
The Dragon Portrait, Great Blue
Category Archives: Charleston
Passing Through, Great Egret
In mixed rookeries like this one certain times of the day the air gets busy, and crowded.
Some birds stick close to the islands and trees which makes getting focus harder. If you grab a branch the bird is long gone before you can fix it.
I had Company, Alligator
So, I made the turn and there he was. Soaking up some of the heat.
This trail is wide and he wasn’t all that big. He did have someone further down past him a bit stumped though.
Right here a ‘nature train’ may drive past with visiting tourist from the old planation up the road. He would move for that.
I’m not something that concerns him. He probably grew up with that tram and the ohh’s and ahh’s of out of town visitors.
He watched me, I watched him. I walked by, he fell back asleep.
Blue Sky – White Bird, Egret
Lately most shots of Egrets have not had much color in the sky.
I tend to meter on the white bird, helps with details. However the background can be either much less or too much color.
This Egret was further out, a longer shot, and I had basic settings.
I think it worked well until white clouds were behind the Egret at his highest ascent.
Everything is a trade off.
Great Blue Returning To Nest
This time in the season adult Herons can leave larger young alone and go out hunting. Things happen, but most of the time if a chick can walk around the nest they can defend it.
I get less Heron in flight shots now, but the Egrets keep us busy.
Fly By Silhouette
Just as the light goes behind the tree line (behind me here) there is a chance of getting some nice shots like this.
Probably an equal chance of getting nothing too LOL.
But by this time I have typically shot over 500 photographs.
An Egret Greeting
I was trying for something different…
I got it.
Night Heron Passing Through Rookery
It’s time for the next phase in rookeries, the smaller wading birds.
This is a Black-crowned Night Heron who blew by heading out to one of the islands. A few were moving around so I was prepared, at least thinking about, a fly by.
Night Herons like to nest in the thick palms with plenty of cover. They still want the protection of a rookery, but more dense. This makes it harder to get many photographs since they are hidden.
In the last image above you can see part of the Egret rookery as he flew past.
These birds are fairly hard to catch in flight so I was surprised to get three images. I’m happy with one, this many is a bonus for me.