Great Blue Heron - Nest Building

It's been a few months since I've posted anything here, but lately I have gathered some new material so finally I have some images to share.  I recently treated myself to a new camera, and the images in this post were gathered while trying it out for the first time at a couple of my favorite venues for bird photography.  

Male heron handing a twig to the female
1/3200 @f10, iso 3200, 700mm

The camera is a Canon 1Dx and I so far am very pleased with it. I was shooting a Canon 1D Mark 4 prior to this and now that camera will serve as a very capable backup.  The 1Dx is absolutely the fastest, most responsive camera I have ever held in my hands.  The speed and accuracy of focus acquisition is simply amazing, even compared to the Mark 4.  I am confident that this camera will serve me well on my coming trip to Kenya.  

 

1DX_0687 Male heron gatering sticks
1/320 @f7.1, iso 800, 700mm

 

 

Last week I tried out the camera at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, and Viera Wetlands, about 30 miles further south. There was not much bird activity at Merritt Island the first day but a trip down the road to Viera proved to be very productive. There were several pairs of great blue herons building nests, and as you have probably already realized, they are the subject of this post.                            

 

1Dx_0669  Male flying back to the nest
1/640 @f7.1, iso800, 700mm 

 

 

 I had observed great blue herons nest building on prior occasions, and discovered that their behavior is very predicatable. The male repeatedly flies to and from the nest, gathering twigs and handing them off to the female. The female then places each twig exactly where she wants it in the nest. This process repeats itself over and over so it is not too difficult to get in a good position to photograph it.

 

1Dx_0733 Male heron flying back to the nest
1/5000 @f10, iso 1600, 700mm

 

About every 5 minutes or so, the male would leave the nest and fly off to find aother twig.   It would only take about a minute for him to find one and then fly back to the nest. 

 

1Dx_0672  Male heron landing in the nest
1/1250 @f7.1, iso 800, 700mm

 

1Dx_ 0680   Male heron preparing to hand the twig to the female
1/1250 @f7.1, iso 800, 700mm

 

Typically in just a few minutes, the male is flying away again to gather more nesting material. 

 

1Dx_0725  Male heron headed out to find nesting material
1/4000 @f10, iso 1600, 700mm

 

 



Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

I was glad to be able to make my first trip of the season to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge earlier this week, and fortunately there were enough birds to make the trip worthwhile.   It's about 150 miles away, so I have to start out around 4:45 am in order to get there by sunrise and take advantage of the soft early morning light.

I was able to photograph a couple new species on this trip so that was an extra bonus.  This time of year the birds are starting to dawn their breeding colors, so that makes the photography all the more rewarding.  I met up on this trip with Dave Turko and we spent the morning tooling around Blackpoint Drive and Biolab Road, within the refuge.


#111890 - Reddish Egret - 1/1250 @f4, iso 400, 500mm


We saw quite a few reddish egrets, and enjoyed watching them strut around in the shallow water and pounce on countless fish. They always put on a good show.  The image above shows a typical early morning scene.   Below, the bird is ready to strike at a fish, and they rarely miss.


#111990 - Reddish Egret - 1/800 @f8, iso 400, 1000mm hand-held



#111873 - Reddish Egret with Catch - 1/1250 @f4, iso 400, 500mm

One species I have rarely seen and had never photographed, is the white morph reddish egret.  We were fortunate to see one but not in the best light.  I did not manage to get a photo I was happy with, but I captured the image below as documentation of having seen it. 


#111906 - White Morph Reddish Egret - 1/2500 @f5, iso 400, 500mm

The white morph is one of the most beautiful birds I've ever seen.  I'm pretty sure the color of the bird's bill and lore get brighter than you see here. I hope to be able to get some better images of this species at a later time. 

The image below is a Northern Shoveler. They are common but I had not gotten a decent photo of one before now.


#111951 - Northern Shoveler - 1/1250 @f8, iso 400, 1000mm hand-held

This is the first time I've tried hand holding my camera with 500mm lens and 2x teleconverter attached.  Adding the flash, the entire rig weighs 15 pounds.  It's quite a bit of weight to try and hold steady to get sharp photos.  I've gotten used to stooping down and propping up the lens with my left arm, resting it against my knee for support.  Dave shot this photo of me holding this rig.  When time permits, it's a lot less work to mount it on a tripod with gimbal head. 

One thing that really surprised me was that the images shot with the 2x teleconverter on this outing were surprisingly sharp.  Many times in the past I have avoided using the 2x except occasionally on my 300L f2.8 and 500L f4 lenses, and even then only as a last resort.  In theory, an extender will degrade image quality slightly, so you only want to mount it if you are using a very high quality lens to start with.  I sent my 500 f4 to Canon to have the calibration checked a few months back and this outing indicates that it's performing noticeably better now.  Before calibration, the images were noticeably softer with a teleconverter attached, than what I am getting now.


Canon 1D Mk2N camera, Canon 500L f4 IS lens, 2x Teleconverter, and 580EX II flash with "better beamer"  flash extender

The next two images are a horned grebe.  I had seen this bird one time before, but had not gotten a photo of it until now.  Again, this was not the best light angle, so I'll have to try and do better next time.


#112120 - Horned Grebe - 1/1000 @ f5.6, iso 400, 700mm



#112125 Horned Grebe - 1/1250 @f5/6, iso 400, 700mm

While driving around Blackpoint drive, we saw two bald eagles in a tree in the distance. They were not close enough for the photo to show much detail, but I took the shot below anyway.  This is at 1000mm, and with the 1.3x crop of the camera sensor, it's equivalent to 1300 mm on a 35mm film camera.


#112089 - Bald Eagles - 1/3200 @f8, iso 400, 1000mm hand-held

On the way out of the wildlife refuge, there were lots of birds in the water along the causeway.  I took the opportunity to get the close up shots shown below.


#112273 - Black Skimmer - 1/1600 @f8, iso 400, 1000mm



#112213 - Black Skimmer in flight - 1/2500 @f6.3, iso 400, 700mm



#112297 - Royal Tern - 1/1600 @f10, iso 400, 700mm



#112268 - Royal Tern - 1/1600 @ f8, iso 400, 1000mm

I saved one reddish egret photo to use as the last image.  This guy was more or less posing for me.


#112011 - Reddish Egret - 1/1250 @f8, iso 400, 1000 mm

Overall, this was a good trip.  I photographed several species I had not gotten before, and finally seeing a white morph reddish egret made it a memorable day.


Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge



96987 - Great Blue Heron



I recently made a quick trip to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and have finally gotten around to posting a few photos.  This great blue heron was standing in some grass near a pond and was in pretty good light.   I made quite a few shots but I like the head angle on this one the best.

Below is a full body shot of the same bird.  (Click on any image for a larger view.)

97008 - Great Blue Heron

And finally, one with a fish.




96969 - Great Blue Heron

 

I have never managed to get a really good shot of a belted kingfisher, and as of today I still haven't.  This one below is probably my best effort so far, but it is cropped from a larger image. These birds spook easily and it's very difficult to approach one to get a closer shot.



40-14265 Belted Kingfisher



The last two are a reddish egret and a tricolor heron.  



97137 - Reddish Egret





96848 - Tricolor Heron