Monday, August 14, 2006

Great Blue Herons on the marsh

There’s been a great blue heron out on the marsh for a while now; I finally learned her patterns and have been able to watch her every morning now for a week as she sits perched at the top of a small tree, preening. I actually digiscoped some photos through my binoculars using a Fuji disposable camera! I don’t know whether any of them will come out. I’ll try to get those developed this week and see what I got. I only took three exposures, and two of them were hand-held. Probably they’ll be of the sky or my finger or something. But for the last one, I put the binocs on a fence post for stability and snapped the photo that way. I’m hopeful that one will turn out.

The real excitement occurred yesterday evening when, at about 7pm, three juvenile herons alit on the same tree—their nest must be near the base of the little tree. I watched them for about a half hour as they preened, looked around from their higher vantage point, and pretty much hung out. I read that herons will build a nest on the ground in a marsh, so they must’ve enjoyed getting a larger view of the world. I’m hoping they’ll repeat this pattern and I’ll be able to get some shots of them some evening this week.

Seeing them out there really renewed my commitment to birding and learning to digiscope. Speaking of digiscoping, I'll enter some thoughts on my recent disappointments next.

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