Green Heron Poses for Photos, Then Tries On Some Disguises
A little green heron came and landed in the willow tree today, and I had a chance to get some photos. This heron stayed long enough for me to get some interesting shots and a few mosquito bites. At first I thought I wouldn't get any shots because of a tree branch that was blocking his head, but I slowly moved a little, and the bird moved a lot:
I think the heron saw me at this point, but It stayed and things started getting interesting:
At one point the heron seemed to start imitating other birds, like the vulture:
Then the heron did it's best robin:
Heron posing as a wren:
And then I guess some kind of parrot:
The heron flew away eventually, but as I was about to go back inside I caught the bird catching a big tadpole from it's perch on a log, hard at work:
thanks for looking at my wildlife photos, taken with Canon Rebel XT camera in my backyard
love it
Wow! Awesome captures!!! I've caught several glimpses of herons swooping down over the river while floating or just sitting at the river. But I've never had enough luck to get close enough to get any pictures. Beautiful stuff @therealpaul!
Thanks! I was expecting this bird and had the longer lense ready, but was still wishing I was a little closer still!
Me too! I've been trying to get pictures of that sneaky bird, finally got a bunch.
nice sequence capture @therealpaul
Thanks! I had an easy model to work with.
I love taking pics of birds...I recently posted about some owls
Me too, and I also did a barred owl post recently.
They're such interesting birds IMO....can you link me @therealpaul?
@liberty-minded you might have to explain what 'link me' means, and I have a rather old computer and don't see when my name is tagged-- is that the link that you meant?
no worries, what I meant was to copy the web address of your owl post in a reply so I can take a look. I love owls and can't get enough of em!
Aha got it: https://steemit.com/writing/@therealpaul/strange-squawking-sound-from-treetops-at-night-mystery-solved-with-photos
That is one talented bird. Love all the varying poses, amazing it stayed around so long to pose and goof a bit. So nice to have such a semi-exotic (in my world at least) bird in your back yard.
Thanks for the great photos, he/she was really hamming it up for you. Fun way to spend some time, sneaking up on her/him, except the skeeters. As @dreemit says below, hard to get them to cooperate...maybe you are a fishing bird whisperer...
It is exotic looking isn't it? And changes appearances like a chameleon. Now I can't find the dreemit comment you were talking about, but I'm not sure the bird ever saw me, I just presumed that it knew I was there by it's reaction to one of my movements.
Nice! I like how he imitates other birds. Speaking of birds... I saw one yesterday that blew my mind. It was a bluebird, a male, and there was a female flying around with him. The females aren't as colorful as the males. But this guy was an indigo/deep blue, almost purple. I've never seen that before and I've lived in the mountains for a long time (I was wondering, new species?). It was really cool. No pictures tho. It was a lucky spot on my part, no camera with me and no time to get it.
Wait...was this really the same bird?? I definitely saw a woodpecker in there...I've never heard of a bird posing to look like other birds, sounding like them yes, but looking like them, no. And I probably sound like a complete ditz right now whether it is or isn't the case.
I don't know if the bird was really doing impressions, it was in some of the photos that it looked like different birds, but yes all of these pics are the same heron, for about 15 minutes I took over 150 pics, playing with shutter speed and trying to hold the long zoom lens still enough (I have about 100 blurry ones!)
Also, not having chat is driving me nuts. It's been down for days now.
Yep, all the new steemers broke the chat I think!
Ha, that is very possible! Speaking of new steemers, I'm currently working on a post, a sort of Unwritten rules of steemit, do's and don't's and helpful tips. I'm sure others have done the same, but with so many new people saying "Great post, follow me and I'll follow you, and upvote and resteem my posts" haha, I thought it might not hurt to add my two cents. They are pissing people off without realizing it. Not me, I tend to think it's amusing, but also I worry about them damaging their accounts before they even lift off the ground. And I will probably slip some "veterans of steemit be patient with clueless new people" stuff in there too ;)
That sounds good, those kinds of posts are useful right now, and I'm sure you'll be diplomatic about the suggestions. The 'follow me' stuff doesn't really bother me either, but I can see how it could be taken, maybe it sounds more desperate than friendly. Like walking up to a stranger saying "will you be my friend?" Might not go over well, but it might be wonderful.
In fact someone just asked me if I could follow them, and they were nice about it so I did, and then I re-steemed her intro post, so it can work! It also helped that she is so Irish, I was charmed I believe.
It can work if they run into someone like you or me (and I check them out and like what they're doing) but the chances of them making a bad impression and ticking people off are far higher. There are ways of doing it. I had a kid the other day who I'll be using as an example, his comment was perfect. Very well thought out, and then a mere suggestion that I might like his blog (which he made clickable).