My other favorite pastime =D

[TessC]

Besides making soap, my favorite thing to do is follow birds around with my camera. I'm not a real photographer, I just love birds and most of them are exceptionally photogenic.

Today's trip out was to one of the little strips of shore that's a real hotspot for birds, it's one of my favorite places and I got a treat. Out there among all of the adult birds, there was a pretty young yellow-crowned night heron (one of my favorite birds), he's showing the very beginnings of the plumes on his head but his colors still have a long way to go. I was fortunate enough to get to watch him hunt crabs for nearly 45 minutes, and got some decent pictures.

Stalking a crab:

Got one!

He turned his head at a good angle for this one, you can make out the three plumes on top of his head:

More crabsnacks coming up, yum.

When he's an adult, he'll look like this:

Anyway, the little guy made my day, they're usually skittish but he was pretty much oblivious to me and I got to really enjoy watching him.

 

[krissy]

wow! what a pretty bird.

i used to attract birds when i was younger. for some reason they would come and land on my hands (they were wild and we were in the mountains), or eat from my hand. i always had pet ducks and chickens. my mom and i even rescued a baby pelican once...

 

[Hazel]

Great photos! I'd never heard of of a night heron until you posted.

 

[ToniD]

Oh, so nice to get close to a bird and be able to get good shots. I have spent so much time "stalking" birds only to have them fly away just when I get close enough to take the pic! Thanks for sharing!

 

[TessC]

You should stalk the feisty ones! I'll link these instead of posting them directly because they're just as big as the night heron pics, but I got these shots last month and they still make me laugh.

I found a young little blue heron so I had to stop and take pics, I adore little blues.

http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy19 ... C07344.jpg


He took exception to me being there and decided to scare me away. First he stomped his feet at me:

http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy19 ... C07330.jpg


When that didn't instill the proper fear and reverence in me, he decided to show me his war face:

http://i791.photobucket.com/albums/yy19 ... C07334.jpg

The poor baby, he was trying so hard to be big and tough and scary. During that same trip I saw the prettiest great blue heron that I've ever seen, I just have to post his pic because he's too pretty not to,

He let me get within about 12' of him before he started looking edgy, so I backed off a few steps and let him be. His leg and foot are fine, by the way, he switched the foot he was standing on twice while I was watching him, so he wasn't standing like that because he was injured. =)

Ooooo how I love the birds around here!

 

[ToniD]

That is a great pic of the heron! It made me laugh too, to see the one that was stomping his feet at you! I have never seen that reaction!

 

[krissy]

that last one makes me think of the "wise old ones" in animated movies. i love that pic of him.