Month: April 2017

Great Egrets

Although I got some shots I really love while shooting the Heron Colony in Santa Rosa, as I stated in a previous post, I really wish I had taken my 100-400mm lens instead of my 400mm fixed lens. I love the wing pattern on these Great Egrets shot against the backlit sky. I hate that they were all so close that I ended up cutting off part of their body. Worst of all, I suspect I’ll never get a chance to photograph on a gray day where the sky disappeared into the background.

If I didn’t love the wing pattern so much I would have simply deleted these shots, but they allowed me to see the Great Egret Wings in a totally new way.

so I’m going to post them here

so you, too, can see the amazing construction of their wings.

I’ll end the post with a shot from a totally different angle with the proper contrast with the background to show that I really do know how to crop shots.

Night Herons in Santa Rosa

Since we don’t get Night Herons in the Pacific Northwest, I’m always pleased when I see them in California. In fact, we often drive out of our way to Colusa National Wildlife Refuge just to see the large flock there. Usually we see them tucked into the branches or hiding in the shrubs around the lake.

It’s very rare to see them out in the open like we did this one at Spring Lake in Santa Rosa.

It’s even rarer to see them with as fish in their mouth like this one.

I’ll have to admit, though, that I was thrilled to be able to shoot them from a completely different angle like I did at the Santa Rosa rookery,

particularly shots of them flying up into the tree to build their nest.

Santa Rosa’s Rookery

It would be an understatement to say that I wasn’t prepared for what I saw at the Santa Rosa nesting area. I was expecting to see one species of birds nesting, not four different species. I was especially surprised to get a shot of this Cattle Egret in my first photo,

the only shot I got of a Cattle Egret in the hour I was there. In retrospect, I wondered if there was more than one but I got distracted by the very active Snowy Egrets.

I did expect to see Night Herons since they were mentioned in the original article, and I wasn’t disappointed.

There were also several Great Ibis in the tree,

though I wasn’t always able to distinguish them from the Snowy Egrets in the tree.

I got way more shots of Snowy Egrets

than any other bird, though I’m not sure if that was because they have always struck me as more photogenic than the other egrets or because there was actually a lot more of them

I’ve seen several rookeries, but they’ve always contained a single species, like all Great Blue Heron or all Night Heron. I didn’t realize how close I’d be to the tree and how hard it would be to move further away and still get decent shots until I got there. I should have taken a 100-400mm zoom lens so I could frame individual shots — though zooming in an out is always hit and miss on a flying bird. Finally, I should have had at least three or four hours available to get the best shots possible. When I go back in the future I’ll be better prepared, though I couldn’t possibly be more thrilled than I was on this visit.

Juvenile Night Heron

A couple of years ago I read an article about a rookery in Santa Rosa, but I had never managed to get there during nesting season. On our recent visit I managed to find an hour to get out there on our “off” day while others were shopping or reading. Luckily, except for the overhead clouds and threatening rain, I had impeccable timing.

Right after I pulled up two volunteers captured a young Night Heron that was on the ground. I assume that since the nesting trees sit in the middle of two busy roads and are both surrounded by orange construction fences that young birds that can’t fly back to the tree are “rescued” though this bird definitely didn’t want to be rescued.

Unfortunately, I was a little too close for my 560mm lens and could never get the whole bird in frame, but I certainly got some nice close-ups as the heron tried to elude the volunteer

by running around the tree

and playing hide-and-go-seek.

Cornered, the heron put on its most ferocious appearance.

After capture, he continued to protest until put into a carrier.

Though I never got a complete shot of the bird, Photoshop’s Photomerge offered this composite.