Herons

[SCraig]

A few Heron shots from this morning at Old Hickory Wildlife Management Area:

Great Blue Heron - Looking for his breakfast until I stopped and bothered him

Black Crowned Night Heron flying by

Another Black Crowned Night Heron playing peekaboo from a tree

Another Great Blue Heron that managed to find some breakfast.

The last shot was completely backlighted since the sun was rising on the opposite side of the lake. I did what I could but it still looks pretty rough.

This is a large area and follows along part of Old Hickory Lake and the dam and tailwaters where the lake once again becomes the Cumberland River (link on Google Maps). Switch to the satellite view (icon in the upper right corner) and scroll down a little until you see a road on the left side of the lake jutting out into the water. That's where it starts and it runs around to the tailwaters of the dam at the Cumberland River.

For some reason Herons were everywhere today. I went over by the tailwaters and saw 7 Great Blue Herons standing around the bank at the same time, as well as some Black Crowned Night Herons flying around overhead and sitting in the trees. Cormorants were all over the water to but I couldn't get anywhere close to them. The satellite photo doesn't show it very well but the parking lot is slightly above the top of the spillway wall so it's a pretty good climb down loose rip-rap to get to the water, and once there the water is VERY turbulent. It looks smooth and placid in the satellite shot but today it was anything but that.

 

[coastalconn]

Judging by the Herons I saw the other morning, they have all left their nests, that might be why you saw so many? I like the peek-a-boo shot.. Nice work, it is hard when they are back lit....

 

[baturn]

Very nice! I especially like the last for the action , backlit or not. The BIF is nice too.

 

[SCraig]

Judging by the Herons I saw the other morning, they have all left their nests, that might be why you saw so many? I like the peek-a-boo shot.. Nice work, it is hard when they are back lit....

Thanks, Kris. You are probably right. I don't have a clue how to judge their age, and several of those I saw were probably young Herons. I've just never seen so many in one place at one time, they were literally everywhere. Each time I turned my head I saw another. At one time there were 3 standing on the bank under the tree that the Night Heron was peeking out of.

Very nice! I especially like the last for the action , backlit or not. The BIF is nice too.

Thanks, Baturn. I liked the backlit series as well. I wish I had done a better job on the exposure but the bird surprised me. I saw his shadow cross right in front of me and looked up just as he started his dive after that fish. I just grabbed what I could at that point. Here's the rest of the series: