Herons

A couple of years ago I spent a lot of time walking and taking pictures at Striebel Pond.  Just recently I've started going through these old pictures and I feel some are pretty interesting.  One day I photographed a great blue heron.

And a little further on I captured this great egret.  I had always thought these were great white herons but it turns on that those are only found in Florida and what we have here is probably a great egret.

I caught this one performing his morning toilette.

 

But what I liked most about these pictures is that this egret appeared to check out his reflection in the water



Before moving on to his daily grind.

You Capture - Fun

I knew right away this You Capture wasn't for me. I mean I'm happy and everything and I have fun ranting about how much I don't like the fact that baseball is ruled by human beings (umpires) but it's not something you can take a picture of. So I thought about my grandchildren and that's fun but guess what, I haven't seen any of them during this assignment period.

So today, I walked at Striebel Pond which is my wont. As I got out of the car with my camera on my shoulder, I thought I ought to just leave it in the car because I can't see a single thing worth taking pictures of.

And then I started to have fun because it's really fun when you think there won't be anything to photograph and you capture this:

And then it's fun when you're trying to take a picture of a subject and you get two subjects - like this:

I was trying to get a picture of a pied billed grebe. They're a blast because they're shy and when you stop and look at them, they duck under water for the longest time. So I was waiting for him to surface when this guy flew by and I captured him.

Finally the grebe had to surface and I got him too.

And I'm always trying to get photos of the terns that frequent Striebel Pond but they're always flying so it's a little harder. But today, one of them was resting with the rest of the preeners. He's the short white guy with the black hat and orange lips.

It was fun watching one of the adult swans telling the kids to line up:

And then watching them obey:

It was fun photographing the great blue heron with the great white heron (egret) in the background. (I thought herons were so territorial.)

And it was fun spotting and capturing these beautiful purple flowers - with one type being quite a bit more beautiful -

Than the other -

Oh and there was one more fun thing going on. I noticed from a distance that every once in awhile there'd be a great deal of splashing going on around the gang of ducks, egret, and tern. When I got closer it appeared that the ducks were taking turns cooling everybody else down. They'd all be quiet for a bit then all of a sudden one or two ducks would run around splashing everybody and then they'd be quiet again. They even did it for me when I was close enough to get a picture.

So I got my four mile walk in but most importantly I had fun doing it. Sometimes the unexpected fun is the most fun of all.

To see other fun versions, visit Beth at Ishouldbefoldinglaundry. And for some real fun, join in yourself. Go take a picture and post it!