Egrets Hunting from my archives 11-17-2015
Feb 24, 2019 18:31:19 #
This is more than a bit long winded so for those who wish to just see the pictures I will caption each. I will also post this in "BIF BOW".
Water birds from my Archives - 11-17-2015 at the Riverwalk Parkway in Riverside, CA. The post of the Green Heron was done done the same day. In fact the Heron hunting and the Heron flying south bound were done before and after I got #2 - #10. The essay had 12 images between the two egrets so I cut one of the landing flair to meet the 10 shot limit.
Egret #1 - trolling I have observed egrets do this several times. Fly low and trail their feet in the water to stir up the minnows. I even saw one twist that long neck back and snatch a minnow by its feet and continue trolling. Of course I wasn't looking through the camera when it happened.
Egret #2 - I saw this one trolling and then it landed on the far side of the pond looked around and lifted off making a circle half way around the pond only a couple of feet above the water and flared out for a landing right in front of where I was standing on the slope leading down to the water. The bird landed running in pursuit of some minnows. (there is a submerged concrete curb around the water plant area that the egret landed on) He continued left to right chasing and striking at the minnows with an occasional pause. I saw him get two minnows. Then the school of minnows reversed and went back between and around the egret's feet and the egret did the "twist" in only one step and chased them back to the left. A few missed strikes, a couple of pauses and he realized the school had split with some hiding under the plant roots by the shore where they couldn't be reached and most of them going into the deeper water on the pond side of the curb. So the egret took off, circled the pond and left north bound upstream under a footbridge. There are 10 pictures of this sequence (the whole thing was less than 1 minute and I tracked the bird all the way shooting several slow bursts of 3 to 10 shots each. A total of about 60-70 images and I culled them down to only about 15 or so before I made my selections and proceeded to the Post Processing of them. I had my 100-400L mk I at 300 mm, 1/800 @ f/8.0 and ISO on Auto (varied from 160 to 1600 in these shots since the bird went from shade to open shade with bright sky fill light to partial sunlight).
Since the moving subject was often only 90-95% focued and the white feathers so contrasty I processed to get a sort of magazine illustrator painting look on some of them with a touch of a soft dreamy look. The jump from green to blue water and cool to warm colors was a combination of the light (shade, reflected bright sky etc) and my mood when I did the PP work on each image.
Water birds from my Archives - 11-17-2015 at the Riverwalk Parkway in Riverside, CA. The post of the Green Heron was done done the same day. In fact the Heron hunting and the Heron flying south bound were done before and after I got #2 - #10. The essay had 12 images between the two egrets so I cut one of the landing flair to meet the 10 shot limit.
Egret #1 - trolling I have observed egrets do this several times. Fly low and trail their feet in the water to stir up the minnows. I even saw one twist that long neck back and snatch a minnow by its feet and continue trolling. Of course I wasn't looking through the camera when it happened.
Egret #2 - I saw this one trolling and then it landed on the far side of the pond looked around and lifted off making a circle half way around the pond only a couple of feet above the water and flared out for a landing right in front of where I was standing on the slope leading down to the water. The bird landed running in pursuit of some minnows. (there is a submerged concrete curb around the water plant area that the egret landed on) He continued left to right chasing and striking at the minnows with an occasional pause. I saw him get two minnows. Then the school of minnows reversed and went back between and around the egret's feet and the egret did the "twist" in only one step and chased them back to the left. A few missed strikes, a couple of pauses and he realized the school had split with some hiding under the plant roots by the shore where they couldn't be reached and most of them going into the deeper water on the pond side of the curb. So the egret took off, circled the pond and left north bound upstream under a footbridge. There are 10 pictures of this sequence (the whole thing was less than 1 minute and I tracked the bird all the way shooting several slow bursts of 3 to 10 shots each. A total of about 60-70 images and I culled them down to only about 15 or so before I made my selections and proceeded to the Post Processing of them. I had my 100-400L mk I at 300 mm, 1/800 @ f/8.0 and ISO on Auto (varied from 160 to 1600 in these shots since the bird went from shade to open shade with bright sky fill light to partial sunlight).
Since the moving subject was often only 90-95% focued and the white feathers so contrasty I processed to get a sort of magazine illustrator painting look on some of them with a touch of a soft dreamy look. The jump from green to blue water and cool to warm colors was a combination of the light (shade, reflected bright sky etc) and my mood when I did the PP work on each image.
Trolling for lunch
(Download)
Glide in to land, feet coming forward.
(Download)
Wings flared and legs bent to absorb the landing a split second before touch down.
(Download)
Landed at a run, wings out for balance.
(Download)
First strike got a minnow,wings still unfolded.
(Download)
Just seconds later wings folded and running in pursuit of the minnows again.
(Download)
Three or four rapid strikes, one of which got a minnow.
(Download)
The school of minnows reversed and went between and around the Egret's feet so he did the "Twist" between steps and kept running in pursuit the other way.
(Download)
Pursuit with a series of missed strikes going the other way.
(Download)
The minnows split and went under plant roots or into deeper water so the pursuit became a take off run.
(Download)
Jan 25, 2021 21:14:34 #
Dazzling and outstanding egret series 
Absolutely beautiful 
Absolutely beautiful Jan 25, 2021 22:25:09 #
joecichjr wrote:
Dazzling and outstanding egret series Absolutely beautiful
Absolutely beautiful Thank you very much.
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