For months I have been living vicariously through you-tube videos put out by backpackers dreaming of when I'll ever be able to get out and do what I love to do! Saturday morning was beautiful but wasted on Dr. appointments and changing of the car tires. I learned it could take up to 18 months to get my Achilles tendons to "heal" and yes be careful they could rupture at any point. I have lots of stretching in my future and most likely less hiking than I would like but our toddler is going to limit us on that to some extent anyways. We decided to use a gift card and ate out for lunch discussing ideas of what to do afterwards. Our son fell asleep in the car on the way home to get our cameras and as predicted it started to rain. I looked at my husband who had earlier suggested Montezuma Wildlife Refuge and said lets do that! He said yes, I grabbed our cameras and hopped back in the car and off we went. I figured with the weather we'd get skunked but I was and am pretty sick of being stuck at the apartment and visiting folks. Montezuma has a "wildlife drive," so we stayed fairly dry shooting from the car windows. It felt good to get out and was surprised to find more birds than expected hunkered down at Montezuma. We shot Coots, Mallards, Northern Shovel Ducks, Grebes, Buffle Head duck, hawks, Juvenile Eagle and others I may post more about them later. We drove the wildlife drive and then out to some ponds to see if there were any Tundra Swans migrating. The answer was no, so I suggested a second lap around the wildlife drive which my husband obliged! So glad we did! Finally I felt alive! The rain stopped and Great Blue Heron's started fishing! I focused on one and watched the whole time from catch to final swallow! The fish it caught was quite large and we didn't think it would be able to swallow it but guess what 30minutes later it finally managed to swallow it! That Heron had quite a work out to get it's meal! Here is a slideshow of it below. I didn't include all the shots for I took far too many. If you look close you can see the fish as it slides down the Great Blue Heron's throat! I know this may not be your cup of tea but the weirdo naturalist in me found this very exciting and to capture it on camera has me jumping up and down screaming "yes, yes yes," inside! Once this Great Blue Heron had eaten it's fish we drove just a tiny bit further down the drive to find more Heron's fishing. I captured one in a short flight and another caught a fish nearby. I wondered with two being in such close proximity if the one I had just shot would try to steal the Bullhead that the second heron had caught. It just walked by looking around for one of it's own. Again the Heron with the fish started lifting and setting down the Bull head fish repeatedly to kill and position it for swallowing. Then suddenly it stopped and looked straight up, "a predator" I thought. Following the Heron's gaze I found the giant culprit! Was this mature Bald Eagle going to steal the Heron's fish? I tried to focus and pan with the Bald Eagle as it flew above and over to the tree! It sat up there occasionally looking back at the Heron. The Heron did not touch it's fish hiding under some weeds until after the Bald Eagle left! It was awesome to witness in person and not from the lap top screen and that the purring shutter was mine! The shots should be great I thought! Well, some were and many were not! I did quite a bit of work in photo shop to get the color, contrast and definition I wanted and some shots that would have been great missed the mark! As in the Bald Eagle was out of focus but the background was tack sharp. I need to learn up and play more with the focus and metering system of the Canon 7d Mark II! Hope you enjoy these pics! It was thrilling to get out and shoot again. I don't know when I'll get out again and am chomping at the bit to go camping, hiking and kayaking! Hopefully I will have a more productive year that this first quarter has been so keep checking back!
|
Julie MetottNature Photographer, wife, mother, lover of outdoor adventure! Archives
November 2022
Categories
|