5:30 in the morning and it’s already 70 degrees. The mosquitoes are taking turns picking out real estate on my forehead and to top it off I left my coffee thermos at home!!! Not a great way to start the day. This is the time of year that shooting wildlife can get difficult. The little ones are no longer those cute little puffballs. Now they are little miniatures of their parents. And the parents are looking a little ragged too. The ducks are molting and the wood duck males look like escaped convicts with shaved heads! And the mature vegetation has made it difficult to get a clear shot. I thought it couldn’t get worse but then it started raining. The forecast said a 6% chance of rain. Way to go Howard, you screwed the pooch again!
I figured if the birds didn’t mind, neither did I. And I was hoping the Green Herons would keep me company, at least for a little bit. And I can report that they certainly kept me entertained today. Green Herons are a fairly large bird, maybe a little smaller than a crow. But they are so light they can almost “walk on water”, as you can see below. Click on the images to enlarge….
Beep-Beep!!!
This next Heron was trying to interrupt his siblings hunt by “dropping in” on him!
“I must go, my people need me….”
And then it was the Kingfishers turn. There are two separate families of Kingfishers, and they never tire of harassing each other. It’s like a giant game of aerial tag whenever they get together. But they eventually settled down for a few minutes and ended up giving me two or three of my best shots. The next two shots are from the same branch, but at a different time and a totally different quality of light. Look at the difference in the color of the light in the two images. Not better, just different. I like them both!
A cooler color of light….
And a bit warmer for this image….
The last one with the raindrops is going to get printed. It just has such a nice feel to it…..
But the next one is my favorite and captures the spirit of the Kingfisher better than any words I can put on paper…..
Bring on the world!!!
They are constant motion, constant jabbering, always full of piss and vinegar! That’s why I love them!
So in the end, it was a great day! Like they all are…….
Thank you so much for looking! Talk soon!
