Wildlife Photography
Finally! For some reason it has taken almost 2 years to catch one again. Green Heron have no lips, that’s obvious. Which begs the question… why do they lick their lips.
I have caught them before but not recently. However, wait for it…
Not yet…
He’s getting ready…
And some lip lapping.
Enter Green Heron in the search box on this site and scroll through the articles. I never marked any text with the lapping thing, but just look. You’ll see they actually do this as a habit.
The road leaving the manor house at Magnolia Plantation passes a large garden pond. Being part swamp Cypress grow here, large cane, reeds, and of course flowers bloom along the edges.
There is a river and large marshlands behind the manor that is filled with wildlife. This pond is a great place for them to visit.
Herons walk and fish here often. The people touring this plantation get an extra treat at times.
Half the time people are so busy with the large birds they miss another local swim by.
The other visitor hiding under the water doesn’t want to bring any attention to themselves anyway.
This is a single photograph of a Heron ‘touch and go’ food drop. The juveniles were too aggressive so food delivery can be the only interaction the adult has now.
The reason for a single image here is focus and greenery. We have come to that time when the trees and branches have leafed out.
Even though I did have a clear shot grabbing focus is hard. For these in flight photos I use a 4 point focus setting.
If I can’t get the center exact the 4 surrounding focus points should work. Theory but usually right. Except when branches in the background are large or full.
Here focus was grabbing different pieces of the background. So, a single in flight photograph.
I don’t see these birds out in the open very often. They seem to prefer tree tops, thick branches, and anything else that will ruin a good photograph.
Based on the caterpillar I assume he found enough to lure him out in the open. And lucky he jumped out of the swamp greenery for a few minutes.
A young Great Blue, not ready to fly off, but wondering what’s out there.
Some in this rookery have taken the first steps of flying. At first they head straight for a large tree, someplace to quickly land. After a few test runs, they circle and spin seeming to have fun with the whole idea.
This little one was still considering it all.
OK, this is an article with a large number of photographs. Don’t let that put you off, it’s a funny and interesting story. He really was a ‘pushy bugger’.
The following images are in order of our ‘encounter’. And really it started like any other, nothing special.
Below is PB (pushy bugger) and he was floating close to the bank in the corner of this swamp. He was pushing around in the weeds catching whatever his nose bumped into. Typically young gator feeding and he looked to be a couple of years old.
I took a few shots and stepped to the edge.
So, PB turned and look, a surprise. His tail had been hidden and based on that curve my age guess was a little off, by at least 2 years. Still at around 4 feet (1.3 meters) I knew by standing above him on the bank I looked huge to him.
Above he turned some more, looked at me, and moved his head around fishing. You can see the water he has pushed around.
Oh my…
He put on a little speed and slipped right in front of me, the shot above looking straight down. I did notice he really wasn’t swimming either. His legs were long enough to touch bottom. Perhaps another miscalculation?
About now PB was facing me, almost on the swamp bank, doing what Alligators will do. Stare up at you and float around. However, his foot was not supposed to be reaching out… toward me and the bank.
The moment of truth. I’m not new at this. Apparently neither is he.
At this point my camera can only get the top of his head in focus, and I’m staring down through the view finder…not really looking. No good perspective.
He is staring (as you can see) up into the viewfinder. I want the shot, he wants my space. For the shot… he’s coming and I’m staying.
We both shifted at about the same time. He brushed past, I turned to keep him in focus.
As you can clearly see, he was completely intimidated by me.
So concerned he turned his back on me as he almost stepped on my toes. LOL
My new friend PB took perhaps 3 or 4 steps and found the sunny spot he wanted in the first place. He dropped right down to warm up. Alligators do love their sun.
We were both winners. He found a great sun spot, no one to bother him. I got a a nice series, and kept my toes.
All in all a good afternoon.
Sorry, but not all babies are cute. These young Anhinga were even worse a week or so ago. Even now not all that pretty…
Here’s a creepy little Anhinga fact, when being fed by an adult they will push their head right down the parents throat… way down !
Like I said, strange birds.
I’m sure there is a logical reason for their theatrics, but they can be fun to watch.
