Two weeks ago I was treated to a visit by an immature Green Heron.

I spotted the bird on my neighbor’s porch around 75 yards away and prepared to capture some BIF shots if it came in my direction. It launched directly towards me from deep shadows (no BIF shots) and to my surprise, landed on my upper deck railing around 10 feet from where I was sitting.

Unable to get a shot with a 1200mm equivalent focal length zoom lens set at max zoom, I somehow managed to zoom out and rotate my camera without disturbing this gorgeous bird. The heron subsequently offered me great portrait shots, initially from my deck railing at 10-20 feet subject distance; then at around 15-18 feet subject distance when it hopped on my deck where it was backgrounded by a colorful ceramic planter; and finally at around 35 feet subject distance when it hopped down to my ugly rock backyard.

Green Herons are secretive by nature and although they occasionally land on my lower dock to fish offering me look down shots, I could not believe this one conveniently positioned itself for me for almost an hour on much more favorable backgrounds.

For story telling purposes, these images are in the sequence captured. I hope you enjoy viewing these shots as much as I did capturing in them.

Bubba