So I was down at Brick Pond yesterday before dawn. It had been several days since I had been here because I spent a few days shooting at Iroquois NWR, just outside Batavia. (more on that later) Usually before it gets light enough to see you can hear the Wood ducks whistling through and landing in their favorite breakfast spots. All I heard this morning was crickets and the school bus going by the pond. Dawn arrived and I was still the only sign of life in the area. No woodies, GBHs, hawks, mallards…. nothing. I thought to myself “boy, is this going to be a dud of a day”. Oh well, I can leave sooner than I had planned (which was 8am) and go home and get the grass cut one more time and rake some leaves.
One more time I checked my watch and it was ten of eight. Great. Only ten more minutes! At 7:53 (I know that because I purposely looked at my watch) two immature wood ducks came swimming by and decided to stop and take a break on a log not too far from me. Usually when they do this they will preen for a bit and then continue to look for food or they will tuck their head into their wing and take a nap. But these two decided that this would be a good time to get into an argument! Click to enlarge

Unlike humans, duck arguments are usually very short and in no time these two were off looking happy as a clam!

So that only lasted about 15 minutes. I started to pack up and leave when I saw a strange object out in the water. It didn’t look like anything I had seen before so I walked as close to the water as I could to take a closer look. When I did that I looked to my left and about 60 yards away was a great blue heron staring at me! Of course I thought he or she would take off any second since he was staring right at me, but he didn’t move a muscle. That bird did not move the whole time I slowly walked 30 yards up the bank to my camera and then walked back down the bank to set up my gear! At first I thought maybe the bird had died on his feet! Herons never let you get away with movement like that. (unless you’re in Florida)
But he did let me set up my gear, out in the wide open and for the next hour and a half he let me take as many pictures as I wanted! So in that time I took nearly 800 images! When you get a willing subject and the light and background are good you don’t stop shooting until you run out of bullets! Things like this only happen once or twice a year, if you’re lucky!
Needless to say, I still have a backache from yesterday’s shoot. I was in some crazy positions trying to shoot the ducks and the GBH. But it was a very good day and I’ll trade some discomfort for a day like that anytime! That’s what they make Advil for…… I hope you like the pics! I had a blast taking them!

I just like the feel of this image…. nothing special, it just captured the mood at the time….

Angular composition pulls you right down to the frog….

Like the old saying goes…. “I’d rather be lucky than good”. Yeah, me too. And boy did I get lucky!
And by the way, I never did cut the grass!!!!!