September 11, 2016

I was back in the marsh at Delaware Wildlife Area at 6:30 this morning. I put on waders and set up my camera on the tripod in about a foot of water inside a cluster of head high cattails with the rising sun behind me. As always I immediately began questioning my location and wondering if I had set up in the right place. Shortly my mind was put at ease as a beautiful green heron flew in and roosted in a tree just 30 yards away. It was still quite dark and I thought I would wait a bit for the sun to come and cast a wonderful glow on this greenie. As always the plan changed when a blue heron came in and chased my subject away; not really a fair trade in my mind but the blue roosted on the very branch from which he had chased his smaller cousin.

If I have learned anything over the past few years of pursing wildlife photos it's that one must take what one gets and make the best of it. While I do like the blue heron it is a very common sight, I have photographed many of them, they move slowly, and it sometimes requires long waits to catch them doing something interesting. Over the summer I have figured out the blue heron game; they fly into a tree near a hunting spot, survey the area for as much as an hour moving very little, and finally they fly down to hunt provided they have not seen anything they don't like e.g. photographers!  They are extremely skittish and impossible to approach. The only chance one has of getting close to them is to anticipate where they want to be and be there ahead of them, before daylight is best.

I like the feel of the third and fourth shots; I think they really convey the late summer season with the light, all the green, and low water level.

I was able to get some captures of the green heron later in shoot, not exactly what I had wanted as the background is plain blue sky, but he did perform a bit. I would have preferred to have the bird on a partially submerged log, nice green marsh grass background, about 30 feet in front of me, but once again take the shots you get and be happy.

bout it.