Sunday, April 6, 2008

Hopefully keeping my promise to the Great Blue Herons

I was right back at it on Thursday, folks. This time I crawled to the center of the river while the level was low and slowly, over an hour, earned trust to get close to these majestic birds. I was in awe when I saw this heron just darting his head underwater time and time again and bringing up a fish in his beak almost everytime. I shot several dozen images of this, but this was one that you could really make out the fish in his mouth.



This was a bit of practice and a ton of luck. This is the same Great Blue Heron I managed to get the close-up portrait of below. The bird lifted off and I lost him behind some trees, but when he came out I was still following his flight path and managed to get one frame where he happened to be right in front of the falls.

Here I was literally so close that I could only get a portrait of the bird's face as it studied every gesture I made carefully. I am still a bit shocked about being able to get this close even with a zoom lens. Persistence with a heavy dose of patience. I love Columbus. If anyone else knows of a great place to get an alligator, or any other animal along the RiverWalk for that matter, please email me at sszwarc@ledger-enquirer.com.

1 comment:

Cal Holman said...

Wow these birds just keep on giving. Another set of good shots. Love the one flying across the river with the falls in the background.