Camera-shy Great Blue Heron

While occasionally you'll run across a bird singing its heart out in plain sight, seemingly putting on a concert for you. (The concert is actually for another bird of the same species and opposite sex, but it can appear the song is for us.) But most of the time birds actually try and avoid our attention, and flee the scene like this Great Blue Heron. 

All too often when I'm lurking about a shoreline, a Great Blue Heron will hear/see me before I even know it's there, like in this picture. Manually focusing on a moving target with the distance continuously changing is beyond my capabilities, so I need to rely on my camera's autofocus. In this case the heron came out a little blurry-but-recognizable; the lighting looked pretty good though.

October 15, 2021 at Duke Island Park
Photo 168430020, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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