I love to watch Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias). Most of the time when I see them, they are standing motionless in the water, watching and waiting for prey to come within range. We both stand there, waiting for a decisive moment when the heron will strike.
When I spotted this heron last Friday, he was in shallow water, water that was much to shallow for it to be able to catch a large fish. The heron was hunched over and was making multiple strikes, but I could not tell if they were successful. From the angle at which I was shooting, the heron’s bill looked cartoonishly long and its body seemed much more compact and squat than normal.
Finally, as you can see in the second photo, the heron caught something big enough for me to see. The heron flipped the little fish into the air and I managed to capture the moment when the fish was in mid-air, just before the heron gulped it down. The positioning of the heron and the direction of the light made the heron’s mouth look a bit like that of a mini-pelican.
Later that same day I spotted a Great Blue Heron standing in some colorful vegetation that hid its lower body. Unlike the first heron that seemed to be having fun, this second heron seemed to be stern and intense as it surveyed the marshland. I really like the way that the vegetation in both the foreground and the background was blurred, which draws the viewer’s attention directly to the heron.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I’m running out of adjectives to describe your amazing photos. And the patience necessary to catch such moments/activities is truly admirable. I love all three photos for different reasons. In the first one the light reflecting the beauty of the feathers and and creating the reflection in the water is used to perfection. The second one, of course, with the fish ‘going down the hatch’ is literally a great ‘catch’ for you (and us). In the third one I love the serious, almost sinister look in his eye. The colors of his feathers and beak are gorgeous.
Thank you again
Thanks, Ann. I love to share photos of what I see when I am out with my camera. I actually amaze myself sometimes with some of the cool shots that I am able to capture. Wildlife photography is a crazy mixture of artistry and technical considerations and I love both sides of photography–it suits my temperament and skill set. I too like all three of these images a lot and am shocked that I captured them on the same day. Thanks so much for taking the time to share your observations about each photo–that kind of feedback is really helpful, because it is sometimes tough for me to look at my own photos objectively. 🙂
Great ‘catch’ 😁😁
Thanks, Ted. I think that goes for both me and for the heron. 🙂
These are marvelous shots, Mike!
Thanks. I spent a good amount of time that day trying to get shots of little birds in the foliage, so it was refreshing to photograph a larger subject like a Great Blue Heron. 🙂
Your photography has gone to the next level in the past year or so.
Thanks, David. I spend so much time thinking of future photos that I sometimes forget to step back and look at my body of work over time. It does seem though that I have gotten a greater number of good shots in the recent past.
Very nice Great Blue images Mike! Enjoyed seeing them! They are fun to watch & photograph!
Thanks, Reed. The Blue Herons stay with us all winter, so I am sure that I will have a chance to photograph them in the upcoming months.
Nice action shot with lunch and I do like your third image with the sterner looking fellow and those layers of vegetation. His feather colors are gorgeous.
Nice fish flip! I don’t think the other bird likes to get his feathers ruffled 🙂
That’s a pretty serious in that last photo, Mike. I love those birds.
Great Blue Herons are special to me in part because they stay with us all winter, unlike the Green Herons, Osprey, and Great Egrets that head south.