Yesterday when a Great Blue Heron at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Virginia turned and intently stared at me, its look conveyed a definite sense of stern disapproval.
I went to the gardens with some friends with the intent of photographing flowers, but my attention was hijacked by this very photogenic Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias). Despite the fact that I was shooting with my macro lens, I managed to get some wonderful shots of the heron, including some in-flight shots, that I will post later. I loved the look in the heron’s eyes and its pose so much that I decided to post this image immediately.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
He does look a little put out with you. It isn’t often that you have a chance to get that close to a heron though, so hopefully he understood.
This was a relatively small pond at a botanical garden and I was a little surprised to see a blue heron there. I was following the edge of the pond and was pretty close to the heron before I even saw it/
It doesn’t look like you’re being invited to stay Mike.
That’s an understatement–I think the heron was a little annoyed and flew to the other side of the small pond a short time later.
Beautiful! I love the delicate feathers! So Japanese