![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/great-blue-heron-1415-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"great-blue-heron-1415-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nSome fishermen have all\u00a0the “right stuff” but for others there’s just something missing.<\/p>\n
Yesterday after\u00a0spending the entirety of Christmas morning at Bear River MBR looking for decent light and birds and being essentially skunked because of thick clouds (with the exception\u00a0of some\u00a0poor quality\u00a0documentary shots of very unusual bird behaviors)\u00a0I came home,\u00a0licked my wounds and tried to take a nap. But when the sun peeked out in the\u00a0late afternoon I went down to my local pond and had more fun with\u00a0“fishermen” (of both the feathered and human varieties)\u00a0than the proverbial barrel of monkeys.<\/p>\n
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1\/2000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I’d noticed this Great Blue Heron perched among a teeming flock of gulls on the shore at the far side of the pond but eventually it took off and I lost track of it as I concentrated on other birds. The next thing I knew it was flying over the far shore and\u00a0across the\u00a0almost black\u00a0and foreboding storm clouds hanging over the nearby Wasatch Mountains\u00a0in gorgeous late afternoon light. This is the first shot I was able to get as the heron passed in front of some trees on the far side of the pond.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Then the heron did me the favor of starting to curl my way…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n so it\u00a0began to come\u00a0closer and fly at an oblique angle to me\u00a0with those brooding\u00a0and very dark clouds in the background.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I nearly clipped a wing in this shot but I really like the almost vertical extension of the left wing in contrast to the\u00a0perfectly horizontal position of the\u00a0right one.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Then the heron banked slightly away from me with both wings held straight out which allowed for an\u00a0interesting mix of\u00a0light and shade\u00a0on all the ventral surfaces\u00a0from the\u00a0reddish-gold sun as it was about to set. The surface area of those wings in this position\u00a0looked to me\u00a0to cover almost a quarter acre! All in all I was able to get about 15 shots I like of this bird in that beautiful warm light against the dark\u00a0storm clouds so I was quite pleased with myself. And with the heron.<\/p>\n Great Blue Herons are one of the most widespread and adaptable wading birds in North America and they’re simply superb fishermen (“fisherbirds” or just plain “fishers”\u00a0if you prefer). Their extremely long legs and fearsome stabbing bill on the end of a long, flexible neck provide them all the tools they need to make them unexcelled fishermen.<\/p>\n But not all fishermen bring their entire toolbox to the pond. Directly below this heron as it flew over the far side of the pond was another fisherman that was decidedly less well-equipped.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, baited – after all, that’s what fishermen do…<\/em><\/p>\n He had most of what he needed\u00a0to be\u00a0successful\u00a0at his craft including a (tiny)\u00a0fly rod,\u00a0fly line, flies\u00a0(presumably) and loads of\u00a0determination\u00a0but\u00a0he didn’t have one of the most essential tools –\u00a0a reel.\u00a0So he looped all of his line over his left arm and attempted to cast that way. I had to wonder why he didn’t have a\u00a0reel – perhaps it malfunctioned,\u00a0or he forgot it at home or Santa just neglected to include one under the tree that morning\u00a0to go along with the\u00a0rod and line.<\/p>\n During bird lapses I couldn’t help but watch him through my lens as the poor guy attempted to cast his line out over the water with most of it draped over his arm in a jumbled-up mess. Predictably it didn’t go well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2320, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, baited – after all, that’s what fishermen do…<\/em><\/p>\n Inevitably he quickly developed\u00a0knots in his line and spent more time trying to untangle it than he did actually fishing. Eventually he gave up and left the pond.<\/p>\n I’m not making fun of this hard-luck fisherman –\u00a0far from it. In fact I admire him because he was obviously\u00a0trying hard\u00a0to\u00a0enjoy\u00a0an activity\u00a0he loved and attempting to compensate for\u00a0impossible and apparently unexpected\u00a0conditions as best he could and that’s exactly<\/em> what I often have to do as a bird photographer. He was patient and never exhibited any signs of frustration or anger that I noticed and that’s a major improvement over my typical reaction to similar situations with my camera and lens.<\/p>\n So my hat’s off to him, though I’ll admit that I couldn’t help\u00a0but smile\u00a0at his misfortune (and at that rod between his legs…).\u00a0About the\u00a0only thing that could have made\u00a0things worse for the poor guy was if the heron had pooped on his head as it passed low and directly overhead…<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some fishermen have all the “right stuff” but for others there’s just something missing.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/great-blue-heron-1433-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"great-blue-heron-1433-ron-dudley\\"")
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