Saturday, I went out with fellow photographer Cindy Dyer to take photographs of the fall foliage and we stopped at a little suburban pond, where I managed to get this close-up shot of a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) crouching at the edge of the water. If you want to see some awesome shots of the fall colors in Northern Virginia, check out Cindy’s blog—she was quicker than I was in posting her shots.
I was able to get this downward-looking angle for the image because I was on a small bridge that is part of a walking path around the pond. The heron was focused on trying to catch prey, though he didn’t seem to be having too much success. Judging from its relatively small size and inexperience fishing, I suspect that this might be a juvenile heron.
I took a number of other shots of the heron that I will probably post, including an encounter with what I think is a juvenile cormorant. Stay tuned.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
That’s a fine shot. I’m surprised that he/she let you get that close.
awesome shot, such a magicial bird 😀
Beautiful bird in a nice setting.
Terrific photo! Were you really close or just using maxi telephoto? Either way, a nice sharp image.
I was pretty close and shot at 300mm–I did only a small amount of cropping.
[…] « Crouching heron […]