At My Window
Few birds are as variform as the Great Blue Heron. Three frequently observed aspects of the Blue are captured in these two photos. The bird can take many other forms as well, as anyone who’s watched it closely for any time will testify.
To the left, are two Blues near our shore, on a large rock we’ve dubbed “Heron Rock” for the obvious reason. The dark, hunched bird in front is a first-year juvenile, while the lighter one in the back, is an adult, probably a young adult judging from its modest size and clean plumage. This photo was taken May 13th of this year.
Below, is a Great Blue taking flight in the little cove between Smith Point and our property. How are such massive wings stored so they can open so quickly? They seem to appear out of nowhere, like a stage magician’s trick of pulling limitless, unlikely objects from his pocket. What an engineering marvel! The photo was shot on May 17th.
Now about the photos, themselves. These two are among the photos that I had at one time rejected, and later restored to good standing, a reversal I explained in my last post.
In that post, I also fretted about my lack of success in getting a good flight photo of the great blue. This is neither a true flight photo — that is, one with the wings fully open — nor is it really that good technically. But it’s visually arresting, that’s for sure!
If you’d like to learn more about the majestic Great Blue, peruse this excellent, fact-filled page in Wikipedia. I’m sure a simple search of Google will yield many other, varied sources.
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finally a liftoff – well done!