Great Blue Herons

The tall, long-legged great blue heron is the most common and largest of North American herons.Great blue herons are waders, typically seen along coastlines, in marshes, or near the shores of ponds or streams. They are expert fishers. Herons snare their aquatic prey by walking slowly, or standing still for long periods of time and waiting for fish to come within range of their long necks and blade-like bills. The deathblow is delivered with a quick thrust of the sharp bill, and the prey is swallowed whole. Great blue herons have been known to choke to death by attempting to swallow fish too large for their long, S-shaped necks. Though they are best known as fishers, mice constitute a large part of their diet, and they also eat insects and other small creatures.

Great blue herons' size (3.2 to 4.5 feet/1 to 1.4 meters) and wide wingspan (5.5 to 6.6 feet/1.7 to 2 meters) make them a joy to see in flight. They can cruise at some 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 kilometers) an hour.

Though great blue herons hunt alone, they typically nest in colonies. They prefer tall trees, but sometimes nest in low shrubs. Females produce two to seven eggs, which both parents protect and incubate. Chicks can survive on their own by about two months of age.The all-white color morph found in the Caribbean and southern Florida is often called the great white heron, but it is in fact the same species.

The call is a harsh croak. The heron is most vocal during the breeding season, but will call occasionally at any time of the year in territorial disputes or if disturbed.

When I go to Florida and photograph them, they are fairly approachable and I usually have no trouble getting close to them. Around my area in the mid-west I have found them to be extremely skittish and will take off before you can get close enough to photograph them. 

 It is amazing how they survive the harsh winters. This fellow was on an ice covered log on the bank of the Mississippi River near the Alton Lock and Dam

Sanibel Island Photography

Thick clouds, cold temperatures, and a stiff wind do not make for good conditions to do bird photography in a sub-tropical climate. Upon my arrival at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, there were only a few birds around. Most were sittting far back in the trees trying to stay warm. There did not appear to be any signs of a break in the clouds so I did what any good photographer would do. I went to breakfast. Then I took my wife shopping. While keeping my eye on the skies, I saw a few breaks in the clouds. My wife was nice enough to keep shopping and allow me to head back to the refuge.

Small pockets of sunlight started peeking through breaks in the clouds. Although there was not much to photograph, I was able to spot this Great Blue Heron perched on a log.  He was sitting back in a dark spot, but had some sunlight shining on him. I spot metered on the heron and it allowed the background to go completely black. I think it makes for a dramatic photograph. But then it clouded up again and the photography was on hold for a while.

Finally late in the day the skies cleared and I was able to start looking for something to focus that 800mm lens on. I headed to the south end of the island by the lighthouse. There is a nesting pair of Osprey that have been there for a few years using the same nest. I pulled into the parking lot and was setting up when this Osprey landed in the tree right over my head. (My luck was finally improving) It appears that fresh Flounder was on his menu as he started to feed. I actually had to back up across the parking lot to get him all in the frame.  (How rare is that when you have to back up instead of trying to get closer) He kept having to flare his wings to keep his balance as the wind was still blowing pretty hard.   

With the sun quickly going down and clouds starting build, I headed out onto the beach to try some shorebird photography. To be honest, I do not know exactly what species of shorebird this is, but I think it is a Black Bellied Plover, but I will have to ID it when I get home. There was a nice soft light at this point, and I was able to get a few photographs. There were a lot of people on the beach and it became to difficult to do any photography, so I called it a day. I wanted to get a nice sunset, but off shore clouds were moving in. So I have posted a nice sunset I did from Blind Pass Beach that I did last year at this time.

  

Have a great day

Where is Scott Today?

Greeting from Sunny, but not as warm as it should be, Southwest Florida. Currently staying in Ft. Myers for a couple days and then hopping over to Sanibel Island. 45 degrees this morning but it did hit 70 degrees this afternoon with the bright sunshine. Like just about everywhere else in the country, it has been much colder than normal down here all winter. Of course it seems warm to me coming from a much colder climate, as I wore shorts and a t-shirt today. The locals looked they were dressed for a polar expedition and they made numerous comments about my attire.

Besides the normal R&R of a vacation for my wife, I am taking photos from sun up to sun down with a special purpose. You see I was lucky enough to be able to borrow an 800mm f 5.6 L IS lens from Canon. If you are a professional photographer and use Canon professional grade camera bodies and lenses, you can register with Canon Professional Services. This affords professionals numerous great benefits, one of which is a loaner/evaluation program. They will loan you a piece of their professional grade equipment to try out and evaluate. Well I emailed them and asked if I could try an 800mm lens while I was on this trip. I never thought they would say yes to loaning me a $12,000.00 lens. But they did! So the big gun arrived on Thursday afternoon, and my buddy Mark McAmish and I took it for a test drive on Friday morning on eagles over in Alton. It is an amazing piece of equipment. I have one of the better eagle shots here from that morning but it is a small file size so it might not look great. Plus I am working off my old HP laptop that should be in the Smithsonian for being a the most durable piece of electronic equipment I have ever had. 

There is a pretty good learning curve with this lens and I struggled with tracking birds in flight. The lens is so powerful that I could not get on birds quick enough even with setting the focus limits. But practice makes perfect right? Well I will need a lot more practice. I was able to catch these really fast moving ducks though. I saw them pretty far out and was able to get locked on. I caught this male Ahinga sitting high in the brush with a nice blue sky background.

I spent my first morning shooting at the Venice Rookery. Located in Venice, Florida   Managed by the Venice Area Audubon Society, this small rookery is an amazing place to photograph several nesting species of birds. Here is a link to their website

http://www.veniceaudubon.org/
. If you make a trip to anywhere near this area and you like to photograph birds, this is a must stop location. The great thing is they are close enough you do not need a monster lens. (It is nice though) I was actually to close several times and the birds would be half out of the frame at times. 300-400mm of reach will do extremely well here.

This shot is a pair of young Great Blue Heron Chicks doing a little sparring while the parents were away from the nest. After the rookery shoot I stopped at an eagles nets in the North Ft.Myers area that I have shot in previous years. The eagles mate and nest sooner here and the chicks are probably only a couple weeks away from being able to leave the nest. I then went over to Cape Coral Florida and shot Burrowing Owls. It was getting cold by then and they stayed pretty far down in their burrows so nothing to brag about there. Just the fact that with an 800mm lens you can do head shot portraits on these tiny owls from 40 feet away.

Well gotta go clean the equipment and charge the camera batteries for tomorrow's shoot.

Take Care!