Great Blue Heron Gallery #2

This is the second of my great blue heron galleries, you can find the first one here. Without further ado, the pictures ...

A great blue heron captures a Townsend's vole in its beak

It's Better To Be Lucky Than Good

Townsend's voles live in the fields at Ridgefield, and I suspect you could track the natural ebb and flow of their population by the number of hunters out looking for them. It isn't just herons that work these fields, as egrets, hawks, owls, harriers, kestrels, and coyotes all feed on the voles and mice here.

This particular heron seemed to be rather lackadaisical in its hunting and I figured it wouldn't catch anything. But I was in a quiet mood and enjoying watching it, so I decided to just sit still for a while. After making a few half-hearted stabs at the ground, it wandered into the taller grasses where it was mostly obscured as it hunted low to the ground.

Suddenly it froze and began wiggling its neck, so I knew it wasn't just goofing around and got my camera ready. I was confronted with the classic problem, do I shoot the picture as a horizontal or a vertical? There's no way of knowing the best composition ahead of time since you don't know what the heron's going to do when after it strikes, but I went for the vertical since if it stayed low it would be completely obscured by the grass.

The heron found its mark and popped up vertically before swallowing the little vole, and I love the way the taller grasses in front envelop the heron in a sea of green. I got lucky on that morning but can't say the same for the unfortunate vole.

Great blue heron staring at its reflection in a saltwater marsh

Self Reflection

I took this picture a few days after my step-father's funeral. I arrived at dawn at Huntington Beach State Park to find solace in the birds of the park. The tide was in but starting to recede, the heron a silent sentinel as the waters slowly drifted past. It wasn't in the mood to hunt, but did look down at something in the water for a moment. From my vantage point I could see nothing under the water, only the heron gazing intently on its own reflection.

Close-up view of a great blue heron's head at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

Eyes

I came across this great blue heron on the same morning I watched a group of bald eagles scavenging a nutria carcass. I pulled out the big telephoto as I wanted to focus in on just the hunter's face and highlight its mesmerizing yellow eyes. It wasn't moving much in the rain, so I eased the car forwards and backwards until I both got the background I wanted and a good direct view of its face.

I took several pictures at different apertures, this one has a rather shallow depth of field which blurs the background nicely but unfortunately leaves the bill and feathers of the body blurred as well. I have some with more depth of field but a less blurred background, and like both approaches for this subject.

A great blue heron flies from its perch on a foggy and frosty morning at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

Early Departure

A heron flies from its perch on a foggy and frosty morning along Ridgefield's auto tour.

Great blue heron hunting voles at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

Great blue heron with a Townsend's vole in its beak at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

Slow Steps

When it heard a vole, ths adult heron stepped towards the vole, slowly moving one leg forwards and then the other, it's eyes never straying from its target. The herons caught a number of voles that morning.

Blue

Many of my heron pictures from Ridgefield show them hunting in the fields, which they do frequently, but they do also hunt in the more conventional sense of working the waters of the refuge. This heron was slowly traversing a pond when it raised its head to check out the surroundings before lowering its head again and resuming the hunt.

By Land or By Sea

Herons here in the Northwest are as likely to be seen hunting in the fields as they are in the ponds and sloughs. In the large fields at the end of the auto tour at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, you can sometimes see a small army of herons working the fields, looking for the Townsend's voles that make their homes here.

	Blue Many of my heron pictures from Ridgefield show them hunting in the fields, which they do frequently, but they do also hunt in the more conventional sense of working the waters of the refuge. This heron was slowly traversing a pond when it raised its head to check out the surroundings before lowering its head again and resuming the hunt.
	By Land or By Sea Herons here in the Northwest are as likely to be seen hunting in the fields as they are in the ponds and sloughs. In the large fields at the end of the auto tour at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, you can sometimes see a small army of herons working the fields, looking for the Townsend's voles that make their homes here.