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Black-crowned Night Heron #2
- f/6.3
- 1/1000 sec
- ISO1600
Black-crowned night heron at Wilde Lake on July 3, 2018. I was there birding with a friend primarily to photograph the juvenile green herons (which are harder to find now that they know how to fly and fish). She spotted this BCNH sitting in the shade of the trees just above the water. We were waiting for the sunlight to come through the leaves and glimmer off of its big red eyes. After photographing for several minutes, it appeared to close its eyes and take a nap. We stopped back about an hour later and found him very awake and possibly hunting. This photo was from our first encounter with it.
I have only seen the BCNH one other time since the end of May. It was not in good lighting as it was underneath the brush. There is a juvenile BCNH I have been trying to photograph here (presumably this one's offspring) but have had no luck thus far.
Lens - Tamron 100-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di VC USD @ 380mm on Nikon D5500