fresh snow

Great Blue Heron Winter Delight

By Mia McPherson, on January 13th, 2013%

Great Blue Heron next to a creek – Nikon D300, f7.1, 1/2500, ISO 400, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light

I spotted this Great Blue Heron yesterday at Farmington Bay Waterfowl Management Area and loved the setting with the fresh snow blanketing the steep creek bank. I also thought the shadow of the bird was great and if you look very closely behind the bird you can see where the wingtips of the heron brushed the pristine snow when it landed in this location.

Great Blue Heron “Bill Puppet” – Nikon D300, f7.1, 1/4000, ISO 400, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 221mm, natural light

This sort of reminds me of playing “Hand Puppet” when I was a child because of the heron’s shadow. This was one of the most cooperative Great Blue Herons I have come across at Farmington Bay WMA.

The images that follow are in sequential order and show the Great Blue Heron lifting off from this location and moving about 50 feet to the west. (techs to follow the images)

Great Blue Heron Lift Off 1

Great Blue Heron Lift Off 2

Great Blue Heron Lift Off 3

Great Blue Heron Lift Off 4

Great Blue Heron Flight 1

Great Blue Heron Flight 2

Great Blue Heron Flight 3

Great Blue Heron Flight 4

Great Blue Heron Flight 5

Great Blue Heron Flight 6

All of these images were taken with these techs – Nikon D300, f7.1, 1/2500, ISO 400, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 200mm, natural light, the shutter speed for the last image was 1/3200.

The photos taken sequentially after these unfortunately had grasses in front of the heron that would have been distracting as the bird landed in the new location. Those landing shots would have been wonderful without the obstructions.

The snow made a lovely background for these heron images but not so much for those of us using the roads at Farmington Bay WMA yesterday. There was a duck hunting boat that slid off the road at a turn, I bet they had to use a winch to pull the boat out from the back to prevent the heavy rear end of it from sliding further down the steep shoulder. Those duck hunters didn’t look happy.

The roads were slippery, the snow was deep. I would not recommend going there for a few days unless you have a high clearance vehicle and 4 wheel drive.

Mia

More Great Blue Heron images

Chukar in fresh fallen snow

By Mia McPherson, on December 28th, 2012%

Chukar walking on fresh snow – Nikon D300, f9, 1/1000, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 321mm, natural light

Fresh snow fell on Antelope Island last night and it made for wonderful settings for the subjects I photographed this morning like this Chukar. I haven’t been seeing the Chukars regularly lately so I was very pleased to see them again. I noticed last year around this time that they were difficult to find too.

Chukar in the snow – Nikon D300, f9, 1/800, ISO 640, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 357mm, natural light

I love to photograph my subjects in all kinds of settings and light so fresh snow was a given, I had to get photos of the Chukars as they pushed their bills into the snow to find food. To me Chukars always look kind of rotund and I think that being in the snow makes that even more obvious.

Bad Seed? Chukar up chukin’ – Nikon D300, f9, 1/800, ISO 640, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm with 1.4x TC 357mm, natural light

Sorry for the bad pun but it did look like this Chukar was up chukin’. It is really just eating and I caught the bill open and showing the bird’s tongue, you can see the food the bird was eating under the upper mandible.

I was going to post these tomorrow but couldn’t wait. I may have patience when it comes to bird photography but I lack some when it comes to sharing my images here.