a heron day

I told myself I was not going to do another collage . . . .
but when it got down to choosing, I wanted to show you some of the variety I saw with one great blue heron today . . . so another collage. Larger bird!

All taken from my dock this morning. I remembered hobbs talking about bumping up the ISO a bit so I thought I would try that and 800 seemed as far as my camera wanted to go with the other variables. I think this benefited me. (thanks hobbs!)

I did actually get some shots of the bird flying today, but they were not as clear as these or in some the bird was partially obscured by the poles of a boat lift. Here, the largest photo on the left had a shutter speed of 1/200, the one top right was 1/320 and the bottom right with wings stretched was 1/1000, all f/5.6, ISO 800. I'm still working this out, but finding my way by trying.

These birds are so interesting and I am very lucky to see them in my backyard. They have a nest nearby that I see when we are out in  the boat and I also see them sometimes on the beach. They are good fishermen and this one circled the "block", walking the shore around the canal more than once. I also got to see him (or her) stalk a fish, then fly into the water and catch it!! They sit on the water like a duck for a few seconds before going back to shore. I got some of this with my camera, but as I said, somewhat obscured by the boat lift. Still thrilling because I set the camera on bracketing and so I have photos of his wing positions flying, really a first for me probably because of the 800 ISO. Pretty cool! Here's hoping you are having a good weekend . . . conscious movement/dance for me tomorrow : )