Flying critters of my park

[wfooshee]

I've posted several shots here of egrets, great blue herons, and a couple of other types. There is also a Little Blue Heron, slightly smaller than the great, and blue all over, including the beak. They're more skittish so I've never been close enough to shoot one, and decided to take a little walk towards where I was seeing them pop up out of the shrubbery once in a while.

Saw a Green Heron first, only my second sighting of this bird. into the sun, so difficult light.


Little Blue Heron. This is still at the limit of my range, the 1280-wide version of this shot (click the image) is a pixel-for-pixel crop of the center of the frame from my D5000.


A little blue at the lake, gathering nesting material.


Brown Thrasher, a first for me


A love bug, unattached.
If you've ever driven through the south during May or September, and the front of your car or truck got coated with black flies, these are the critters. They're just coming out and haven't quite paired off yet. I've actually never seen them one at a time before! (I shot a bunch, and this is the only one that was even close to usable.These guys are less than a quarter of an inch.)


A great blue feeding chicks, at the very limit of my lens's reach (or maybe farther.)


Another of my dragonflies


Red-winged blackbird came out to pose for me.


A coot being camera shy


At the boat dock, where folks are cleaning fish and throwing the dregs out to the birds. This pelican spent a LONG time solving a problem....


He's got it speared!!! "Why won't it go down???!?!?!"


Great blue taking his toys and going home.


A guy was throwing a net from the beach, and while he wandered down the shore this egret came up to check out the catch bucket.


This guy was blocking my path along the trail


"WAIT!!! You must first answer this riddle:"


I heard no questions and continued walking, and he yielded.


Another little blue heron. This guy went back and forth from the island to the shore for nesting twigs several times while I was there.


Red-winged Blackbird puffing up to sing:


Northern Panula. I can guarantee that this is a first for me. He flew across the path in front of me, my mind was sharp enough to think, "What was that??!??!" I found him in the tree, but had no shot, followed him as he flicked from branch to branch, and finally got three shots off, then he flew away.

[Eric D]

Nice set...looks like you had a good day!

[paulnj]

great series of images. looks like you had quite a productive trip with some nice finds.