It was a quick, but busy day at Lindsay Parsons this morning. I had been seeing a flock of wood ducks using a small cove not too far from one of my stands so I thought I would spend some time there and see what might happen. The woodies came in like clockwork at about 5:45. Sunrise isn’t until almost 6:30 so all I could do was watch and learn. Unfortunately by the time there was enough light to shoot, the ducks had wandered off out of camera range. I thought it might be an early exit for me until a trio of Green Herons showed up. Green Herons are quirky birds. I swear to God their whole purpose in life is to harass each other! But the good thing is they usually don’t go very far when they are disturbed by their siblings.

Not to be outdone, a GBH came by later although much farther away….. These two herons couldn’t be more different. The green heron does not have nearly the patience of the GBH. If they don’t see any fish in the first few minutes they are off to the next branch or stump. The GBH’s on the other hand will stand silently for a considerable period, hoping breakfast will come to them.

But this morning was pretty much all about these 3 green herons. Because they were always on the move, I was able to get some different compositions. Unfortunately because they were so interested in bothering each other, not one of them caught a fish the whole time I was watching!

It was fast and furious for about an hour. It’s a shame none of them thought to catch a fish or a frog…..

All the dead trees had spider webs on them, which makes for a different look….

This one and the last one would make a nice Diptych…..

And last but not least, a GBH pic…. I like the light on this one. Not the sharpest but you can’t win them all. This one was taken with a 1.7 teleconverter attached. I have a love/hate relationship with the teleconverter. I lets me down far too often. It’s not real sharp, even at f7.1….

Love the composition with the strong verticals in the background but just not real sharp….

All in all it was over far too quickly, but it was a Hell of a ride!!!!
Oh, and about the title of the post. I was on my way out and I decide to stop and clear a new area for a new blind setup. It had plenty of cover and it was only about 150 yards away from the car. The only thing I had to do was clear out a big old wild rose bush. And I knew that I was going to get stuck by the thorns, but what I didn’t know was that there was also a hornets nest in the bush! At first I thought I had just grabbed a thorn but when I looked at my hand it had several hornets on it! I really didn’t think an old fart like me could run that fast!!! I haven’t run that much in 20 years!! I made it to the car and only ended up with four stings. If I hadn’t had a jacket and gloves on I’m sure I would have paid a heavier price!
That’s all I have for now, thank you all for taking the time to look!!!

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