Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Green Herons

I was hiking at Rock Cut State Park and noticed this Green Heron sitting in a tree above my head, so I backed up to get a better angle, and he stayed put to let me take his photo (below, 5/2/10).


Last year (5/17/09) was the first time I was able to get a Green Heron in my view finder - the photo below also at Rock Cut State park.


A month ago I was crossing a foot bridge over the Kishwaukee River in Kishwaukee Springs Forest Preserve, when I saw an unusual color in the brush next to the river.  I focussed in on it, knew it was an animal, but still couldn't tell what it was.  Soon the animal lifted its head - it was a Green Heron struggling to capture a frog. He would lift the frog into air, shake it, then dunk it back into the water. This went on for more than ten minutes. It gave me time to walk back and forth on the bridge until I could find a clear angle for a picture. I probably had already took 20-30 shots , when the heron looked staright at me with his dinner in his mouth, as if to say, "Hey, do you mind? I'm eating!" I took the photo and was happy.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

These are great! I especially love the mealtime shot. Not so nice for the frog I guess...

~Val said...

I'm still amazed you got this shot. Wonder if the frog tastes like chicken... ;-)

Unknown said...

Nice blog and amazing capture! That looks like decent-sized frog putting up some fight here! But in the end the bird was able to win the battle and gulp that whole thing down okay really?? It seems like it would have trouble fitting down that long/skinny neck. Also, if actually eaten, does the unlucky prey get swallowed kicking all the way as well?!

-Kyle