This photograph is from my "Avian Florida" Collection.
********** My brother and I were working a Florida wetland, looking for anything that might get our attention and warrant a photograph. We then heard an odd sounding, yet familiar call. Rick looked to his right and caught a glimpse of a green heron.
For those who do not know, the green heron is a stunning, yet a fairly small heron. In the wild, they are often very suspicious of humans. This one, however, seemed preoccupied with something else. A rival male!
Rick quickly and quietly jumped into action as did I. I was armed with my Canon 7D Mark II with a 600mm L, and Rick had his trusty Canon 1Ds III and a Sigma 150-600. What happened next was odd. The birds used us as a buffer between each other! This allowed us each to get glass on a seperate bird, and actually put the birds in a slightly more comfortable posture.
Now, everyone could relax. I began to fire off shot after shot of the perched heron. I kept whispering to myself, "Oh man, this is great, this is great!" I love the image above as not only a high key style portrait, but as a behavior shot. Look at how his feathers are raised. He is still irritated with his rival heron. What a great feeling to capture such a beautiful bird!
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