Juvenile Green Herons

Juvenile green herons at Wilde Lake on August 11, 2018. This particular brood of green herons is an exciting one for photographers and birdwatchers in the area as this is the second brood of the summer. While many knew of the first brood, the second brood was much more low-key. While I was photographing the first brood nearly every day, I stopped over only every few days to keep track of the second brood (for estimating when they were most likely to be wandering on the branches). Shooting into the nest itself is hard due to the location and branches in the way so I skipped that for this brood.

Patience is much needed for photographing the juveniles as one can arrive and see them immediately wandering. Other times you can sit there for several hours with minimal movement. The reason most photographers wait for them to wander from the nest at Wilde Lake is the dead branches from the tree make for the easiest spots to view them. Once they learn how to fly better and jump more easily on the branches, they become much harder to find as they will hunt in deep, thick brush surrounding the lake and will not come back to the nest.

This photo is straight from the camera with no post-processing as I really enjoyed the colors and natural look of these.

Lens - Tamron 100-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di VC USD @ 400mm on Nikon D5500