On my way to register for my classes I got distracted when I saw this Great Egret in one of the nearby inlets that come off the estuary. After parking nearby and coming back to a suitable place to take the picture, he was gone. A minute later I heard him strike the water near me and then this popped into my view finder. Surprised me to say the least. Of course by his expression I surprised him a bit too. Fortunately he did not find my presence offensive and continued to hunt fish in the inlet while I snapped a few more shots. Odd shaped duck isn’t it?
Scary news of the day is that Radio Open Source wants to interview me about bird photography, geotagging, flickr and associated stuff. Ack? I must not have sounded like a total moron when talking to their researcher then.
Found in a lightly wooded area near the salt marsh I usually haunt in my search for egrets and other shore birds. This one was a bit peeved from near constant distractions by a bee trying to visit the same thistle.
I tried all morning to get this bird, between his shyness and hyper activity it was useless until he landed on this thistle with a large boulder between us. I low crawled up to the boulder and set up the tripod and camera to just clear the boulder. I was so happy to have gotten the shots when he finally did fly away I had to shout. No one noticed but the nearby grazing sheep who obviously already think I’m nuts.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Cousins
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.
Here you can compare the sizes of a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) in front of a Great Egret (Ardea alba). They only stayed this way fo a few moments before the egret ventured below the cord grass and the heron took off further up the cove.
Best viewed LARGE.
Filed in Mystic, Photography, Wildlife
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Also tagged Ardea alba, Ardea herodias, egret, flickr, Great Blue Heron, great egret, nature, ornithology, photo
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While shooting water birds this mourning dove landed in a nearby tree and gave me time to turn and get just one shot.
First one I’ve seen in Mystic in two and a half years! Didn’t get any great pictures of him, but you can bet I’ll be on the lookout for another one. Looks like I will need to do some more early morning outings as this one was out round 7am.
