I believe that many folks think that when there’s a reflection of a photo subject on the surface of water that reflection is an exact upside-down version of the subject itself (unless the reflection is disturbed by irregularities on the water surface). That’s really not the case.
I don’t have a great track record with Black-crowned Night Herons in flight but yesterday morning I had some success with juveniles of the species at Bear River MBR.
It’s been my Christmas tradition for years to spend part of the morning photographing birds. I usually have the place (wherever it might be) mostly to myself and personally I find communing with nature on Christmas morning to be quite appropriate and fulfilling. And yesterday’s snowstorm was pure delight.
Who among us has not been at least a little bit curious about precisely what birds are eating?
In the field bird photographers often have to make snap decisions. Sometimes we make the best choice and sometimes we don’t.
When common birds perform uncommon behaviors it catches my eye. And hopefully my lens. This was a behavior completely new to me for this species.
The distinctive bright yellow feet and deeply contrasting jet-black legs of the Snowy Egret can really grab your eye when they’re visible above the water’s surface or even when the egret is in flight – so much so that both the bird and its feet are often referred to as “golden slippers”.
Generally the White-faced Ibis is non-aggressive as it feeds in large groups of its own kind. Even when they accidentally bump into each other there is usually no aggressive response. But there are exceptions…
Yesterday morning I decided to break with one of my long-standing traditions and brave the potential crowds by visiting one of the more popular birding sites in the area on a weekend – Glover Pond near Farmington Bay WMA. One of my goals was to locate and photograph the Little Blue Heron that has been hanging around in the area for the last couple of weeks. That bird is causing a lot of excitement in the birding and photography communities because it’s so far out of its range. I never did find that heron but this one more than made up for it.
I have a confession to make and it involves a long-held prejudice I’ve had in the past against images of Great Blue Herons.
Though I regularly watch birds as they preen it’s not often that I’m able to actually see the preen (uropygial) gland.
Around here life is tough on our herons when temperatures turn frigid. Finding open water for fishing is almost impossible and nights are long and difficult to survive without much food in the belly
The Black-crowned Night Heron is the most widespread heron in the world. They are opportunistic feeders that feed on a wide variety of prey and I’ve seen them swallow some amazingly large prey items. I suspect that their rather interesting-looking tongue plays a significant role in their success.
Yesterday morning we encountered several cooperative Greater Yellowlegs at Farmington Bay and this one found a rather unusual prey item.
Snowy Egrets are spectacularly beautiful birds that we came very near to losing. In the early 1800s birds in North America were so numerous that John James Audubon insisted that no act of man could ever wipe a species out, including the Snowy Egret – yet by 1913 the Snowy Egret was flirting with extinction. The cause? – lady’s hats.
