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The eyes have it
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The eyes have it

If you look at this shot you can see the mantis is starring dead at me. What I didn't realize till now was that it had it's eyes dead on me the whole time I was photographing it.

That lone black dot on each eye was smaller in all the other shots, so it was harder to spot, but it's there, and you can see them trained in on me while it appeared to be totally focused in on eating it's prey. But make no mistake those black dots followed my camera no matter where I was as I circled around, up and down him. Including the first shots, when I was over his right shoulder behind him!

my front yardpraying mantisNYCStaten Islandsummernatureinsects

  • DSC_0641 learning how to hunt
  • DSC_0669 exploring the lake
  • DSC_0707 exploring the lake
  • DSC_0723 immature heron
  • DSC_0804 heron's nest
  • DSC_0808 heron's nest
  • DSC_0814 heron's nest
  • Still feeding it young despite the chicks being able to leave the nest, this process must be a tad unnerving for the parents, now the the children are 10 times the size than when they were hatched. Getting surrounded pinched in the neck, and nearly speared in the face by 3 long sharp beaks, can't be fun.
  • DSC_0870 heron's nest
  • So with one chick off exploring the lake , and the parents off food hunting things around the nest was kind of quiet. And after 3 months I had captured almost every type of shot I set out to get. And with no idea when I'd capture a shot of one of the chicks actually flying, I felt it was a good time to depart and say good bye to the nest for 2016.<br /> <br /> Next year I hope to purchase a D500 to replace my aged D300s, as well as a super Telephoto zoom. With any luck I be able to do that in time to capture a whole new set of photo's of this nest and a brand new set of chicks.<br /> <br /> I will always remember the challenge and triumphs I had these two years photographing the nest with my manual focus 300mm Nikkor. It certainly was no easy task but the ability to add a hundred shots of it to my nature gallery is something I will look back at with pride.
  • DSC_1063 closeup test 80-200mm lens
  • DSC_1050 closeup test 80-200mm lens
  • Spotting a praying Mantis in my little garden is not new, I have photographed a different one each of the last two years. What makes this one different is that for the first time I caught one devouring a victim. <br /> <br /> When I looked down while watering my garden and spotted him, I would have run into the house anyway to get my camera, but seeing him munching away at what I guessed was a fly made me double time it into the house for my camera.
  • When I got down on my knee and looked through my viewfinder at him from the front instead of from the back, I saw it was a yellow jacket, not a fly he caught. Great I thought one less to bother me when I work in the garden, and one my best close up shots ever!
  • DSC_3000 praying mantis
  • DSC_3005 praying mantis
  • DSC_3007 praying mantis
  • DSC_3013 praying mantis
  • DSC_3014 praying mantis
  • The eyes have it
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