... Sushi, to go

You may recall last fall when I was beside myself with elation that I was able to get close enough to a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) to get some decent shots ... so imagine today when the hubs and I were taking a nice walk on the Paulinskill WMA "hyper-humus" trail and came across a magnificent Great Blue in breeding plumage. What I've learned in photographing birds in the wild is that you need to fire off a lot of shots and assume that you will not get a second chance.

So, I did exactly that - fired away. And got a lot of shots of the blue just standing in the water. Neat, but not great. So hubs and I walked a bit further and realized that we had a MUCH better view of the blue from our new spot - up comes Big Daddy, ready to fire off more shots. And, as I was shooting away - whamo! The blue snatched a sunfish out of the water!! He quickly rearranged his tidbit, then took off - again, while I was still firing continuous shots. Oh, yay!!! This is the kind of thing that usually happens right after I lower the camera (don't snicker, I know you've had those "aw, shit" moments.) He settled in the shallow water near us and neatly swallowed his bit of sushi before taking off again to fly across the lake.

If you'd like to see the sequence (reduced to manageable 5 shots) as well as a shot of yours truly manning BD, check out my Paulinskill WMA Album on Flickr

Lots of other good stuff today. Hubs and I had phone calls with both our moms today - his in Alabama and mine in Oregon. Did a little pottering in the yard, and I got some nice hammock time in late this afternoon, listening to the birds sing and watching the chickadees dash back and forth to their brood. Yep, a good day.

Thank you ALL for the amazing comments, stars, and hearts yesterday - it is fun to have all of you here to cheer me on and celebrate the milestones. Means a lot! I am still kind of shocked that I've blipped 301 days in a row...and when I look back at the first shots, I realize how much I've learned here. So thank you for the friendship, the mentoring, and the laughs - you all ROCK!

And for all the moms/mums out there - Happy Mother's Day (and especially to Virginia and Sheila, our moms...)

xxoo
Debbi

PS: If you want to see more herons, do check out the Cornell Heron Nest Cam to see the ugliest cute little heron chicks! Remember that the nest is viewable only during daylight hours on Eastern Time (GMT -5)