Oh, It's Valentine's Day? Here, Have A Fish!

[sm4him]

In case you haven't already caught on from my postings in other Valentine's Day threads, I don't LIKE Valentine's Day. I don't like the commercialism of it, I don't like all the grossly sappy cr*p people plaster all over FB (yes, even worse than the USUAL sappy cr*p), and I don't like being SINGLE on Valentine's Day (admittedly, this is more about the lack of chocolate-covered strawberries and the like than the lack of a date...). But mostly, Valentine's Day makes me miss my dad, because it was HIS holiday to give little sweet cards and treats to his girls.

ANYWAY...I gotta say...this Valentine's Day, I ended up getting something I really, really wanted.

Pictures of a heron with a fish. :lmao:

I took another lunchtime walk down to the river landing near me and sure enough, found one of the herons again. It flew off to a spot where it was really hard to get any good pictures; there was just too much brush and limbs and such between me and the heron. I finally found ONE little spot where I could kind of get a bead on him. But I knew if he took off, there was no way I'd get him in flight from where I was, so I walked a little farther off toward a clearing. From there, I still had a lot of stuff between me and the heron, but a clearer shot if he took off. But all of a sudden, he perked up and I could tell he'd spotted a fish! So, I just grabbed what I could of from where I was, then went back over to the tiny little clear spot (well, less cluttered, I should say really) to see what else I could get.

Considering the difficulty getting through all the vegetation to the heron, I was pretty pleased with the results.

1. The missed dive--all I got was a wing.



2. REALLY wish that limb wasn't in the way!


3.


4.


5.


6.


C&C, general comments, witty banter all welcome!

 

[ceeboy14]

Great captures, Sharon. Whoohoo!

 

[Radical]

I agree very cooll your so lucky to have all of those birds to photo.

 

[manaheim]

*sends sm4him some chocolate covered fish*

 

[SCraig]

Hope he chokes on that poor fish. Oh, wait, it looks like he's gonna

Great series, Sharon.

 

[sm4him]

Thanks, both of you! Things like that are just SO cool to watch; and to have captured even reasonably decent shots of it was a first for me.

Radical: I'd probably think the same thing about the birds you have there! But yeah, I've been pretty fortunate lately to find a few good places within just a few minutes of me--and this (and a second) heron that seem to like to hang out at the landing that I can easily walk to in less than 5 minutes at lunchtime.

 

[sm4him]

*sends sm4him some chocolate covered fish*

Thanks! That's the nicest thing anyone has sent me all day...well, except for mish's pm...

Hope he chokes on that poor fish. Oh, wait, it looks like he's gonna

Great series, Sharon.

Thanks, Scott! And yeah, probably not a stellar day for the fish. Herons don't really practice catch and release. :lmao:

 

[mishele]

#4 is the "Oh F" shot. Nice catch.

 

[MSnowy]

Very nice set!

 

[baturn]

Very well done! Sometimes you just don't get a choice of locations to shoot from and birds are where ever they wish to be!

 

[coastalconn]

Fantastic shots Sharon! I have hundreds(maybe more) shots of Great Blue Herons, but mine just stand there or fly, I have never seen one grab a fish. Awesome and congrats!

 

[sm4him]

Fantastic shots Sharon! I have hundreds(maybe more) shots of Great Blue Herons, but mine just stand there or fly, I have never seen one grab a fish. Awesome and congrats!

They must be too cold up there in the frozen north to actually DO anything.
This is actually the fourth or fifth time I've seen one catch a fish, just in the past few months--it's just the first time I've been able to get semi-decent photos of it.

 

[sm4him]

Went back to the same spot at lunchtime today. I wasn't surprised to see the heron there again.
I WAS surprised to catch him eating again.

1. Not the best picture--same problems with vegetation between me and the heron--but I thought it was cool that it wasn't a fish. Not sure what it is--a crawdad, I guess?
Anyway, he dropped three times, picked it back out of the water three times. Finally dropped it a fourth time, and gave up.



Then he flew off to a much better spot to get pictures of him--but I *STILL* missed the dive and catch, because he turned his back on me!
2.



Here's a couple of decent, non-eating pictures as well:

3.


4.

HeronFeb15_2013_8019editweb by sm4him, on Flickr

There's more on my Flickr page (and of course, if you wanted to favorite any of them on Flickr, I'd be okay with that, too! )

 

[shefjr]

WOW!!! You caught a lot of great photos here! I'm jealous. I don't get to see heron too often. They are so few and far between and when I do spot them they are high above flying away.

Nicely captured!:thumbup:

 

[LaFoto]

I feel something like envy creeping up inside me ... the only times I've ever seen herons they were either very far away, of flying away, but never was any of them posing (or even EATING) for me! Hmph.
Lovely series.
Yes, I'm envious. :meh: