A Quick Portrait Session With A Green Heron

Wednesday morning I went out to the Celery Bog with a little plan. I try not to plan wildlife days too much. I just go where the photos seem to be. Once again though I went down to the water to see just what I could find there. I spent a lot of time making decent photos, and after a while I was thinking about grabbing lunch. I decided to stay an extra half an hour and I was rewarded. This green heron flew very close to me in what I thought was a great place to make some photos. Then after checking me out for a while it flew within a few feet of me allowing me to make some portraits of it. The light was not terrible, and the algae on the water made for a really good backdrop.

A Green Heron Kind Of Day

Most of my favorite photos from Wednesday were of the green herons. Over the course of the last couple of weeks I think that I have made all of my favorite green heron photos that I have made. They seem to be there in great numbers, and some of them are not too shy. This has been a great year for heron photography even though I have not been out there as much as I would like to be.

Know Your Subjects

I usually say this about the birds that I photograph, but it also applies to photographers. When I saw a familiar photographer out on Wednesday I kept that in the back of my mind. I know that they like to get too close to birds and they will fly off. Keeping that in mind I stayed right where I was knowing that the egrets on the far side of the bog would get flushed to me soon. I had a steady stream of birds getting flushed and then the egret came by. Sometimes staying put is the right move.

Go When You Can

I have been birding much later in the day than I would like to be out there. The light is harsher than I would like, but I have to get the kids to school so I can only get out there at a certain time. I could stay home because the light isn’t quite what I would like, but look at all of these experiences that I would miss. If you watch professionals talk about when to bird early morning and late afternoon light are the times. If you are going to publish or sell prints that is something to keep in mind. I will not sell prints though so I would rather head out and have some fun.

More Photos From My Walk

Here are a few bonus photos from my walk on Wednesday. I did not get much of a walk in as I would like, but that means that the photography is good. As I write this I plan on getting around a little more as the week goes on as it looks like the warblers will be arriving in greater numbers.