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Perfect landing....
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Perfect landing....

One of the several types of shots I came here to get today was of one of the parents coming in for a landing at the nest. If I was using an auto focusing lens to record these shots, this would have been easy. But as my longest AF zoom stinks at capturing fine detail at distance, ( I was just over 100 ft. away from the nest to get these shots), the only lens I own that could do the job and do it well is my 300mm Nikkor, and that lens is 30 years old and manual focus, and that makes capturing a bird in flight quite problematic.

Despite that as I had been trying to do this for over a year now since I discovered this nest last spring, I have been getting better and better at it. And by today I had already captured several great images of the parents coming in for a landing.

And none of the sequences was better than this one, as the chicks looked on from the nest and the branch just to the left of it.

springStaten IslandClove LakesGreat blue heronbirdsnatureheronsNYC

  • DSC_8988 heron's nest
  • DSC_8993 heron's nest
  • DSC_9011 heron's nest
  • DSC_9020 heron's nest
  • A very very bad sign....
  • Feeding time over, things at the nest went back to being routine and quiet. As the chicks are getting quite big, with wing spans that must easily exceed 4ft., leaving the nest to explore the lake is a reality that they will face very soon. And if they are going to get down from the nest to the ground 30 ft. below without killing themselves their going to need working wings to do it.<br /> <br /> So not surprisingly, when there would be a strong gust of wind, I would see one of the chicks turning into the wind and flapping it's wings against the wind. No doubt to build up wing strength, as well as to teach it's mind and body the necessary actions to get this big beasty of a bird off the ground and into the air.
  • It is 2:48, the winds were really kicking up, as one of the parents returns to the nest to feed the 'youngins'. So it's been at the least 10 minutes since our doomed chick crawled onto the edge of the nest. While its' siblings are on their feet and excited about getting fed ( you can tell when the are excited because the black feathers on their heads stands up and makes them look like wearing a Moe Howard toupee), our runt of the litter doesn't so much as raise it's head, or even open its' one working eye.
  • DSC_9144 Heron's nest
  • DSC_9150 Heron's nest
  • Everyone's fighting for food except our doomed chick , still sitting on the edge of the nest, now teetering off the edge more than ever. The end is near....
  • For me this shot here is the most remarkable shot that I have ever taken of the nest since I discovered it last spring. While two of the chicks continue to try and gain the attention of their parent to fill their belly with food. One lone chick stops its' imploring mommy or daddy to give it food to check in on it's smallest sibling, now motionless and sitting on the edge of the nest for almost 12 minutes now. <br /> <br /> I was quite moved that any of the usually ravenous chicks wold stop fighting for food to check in on it's weak brother or sister. It is the last time I saw any of them acknowledge our doomed one eyed chick.
  • DSC_9171 Heron's nest
  • One last shot.
  • Here one of the parents is returning to the nest , and you can see that the sickly chick after hanging onto the left edge of the nest for over two hours is now gone from sight, and definitely fell from the nest. But to the parents and the remaining three chicks life goes on. As you can see I recorded the parents landing several more timers after the smallest baby fell from the nest,to feed the remaining chicks, which hardly look broken up at the loss of their smallest sibling.
  • DSC_9199 Heron's nest
  • DSC_9200 Heron's nest
  • DSC_9205 Heron's nest
  • DSC_9218 Heron's nest
  • Perfect landing....
  • DSC_9242 coming in for a landing
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