Saturday, May 30, 2009

Herons

I have been alive just over 36 years and I've never seen baby great blue herons...until today!



The dad flew off in search of food, and I watched the mom heron straightening up the nest, putting branches back where they should be. Classic family dynamic.



Either late fall or early spring, the fabulous folks at the forest preserve built nesting sites for the herons in this marsh, and fingers were crossed that they would use them. Indeed they did! New construction houses among herons are all the rage.



Not to be outdone with babies, this great white heron let me get in close while he was fishing in a tiny creek that feeds the marsh.


I'm such a bird nerd.

4 comments:

Kate P said...

These are great. I've really been enjoying the pictures! (And sorry to hear about the insanity--hope things are on the upswing for you.)

AnonAVBWhatDidIUsedToCallMyself? said...

OMG, these photos are made of win and awesome! I have never seen baby blue herons, let alone taken carefully posed blue heron family portraits! A great day for HV photography.

Happy Villain said...

Kate:
Thanks, and the insanity is just typical stuff, like stupid questions, selling my soul, my new red hair, etc. :)

EYESPOTS:
Carefully posed? Hehehe, um, no. They were so far away, and I had walked about a mile from my parking spot, was standing precariously between a road and some weeds (where I saw a snake! EEK!) and trying to hold my camera with my 300mm lens zoomed to the max, and just take a picture in the vicinity of the babies with hopes that it wasn't blurry. If they posed, I didn't know, but it certainly looks like they saw a lot more of me than I did of them. Thanks, though.

Kate P said...

Just as long as you're not selling your soul to the people asking stupid questions. . .