Recently I wrote about photographing a co-operative Reef Heron hunting fish along the beach. It had been remarkably focussed on its hunting and very tolerant of passing walkers with their dogs. Unfortunately one approached too close and flushed the heron a little to my annoyance. It frequently surprises me how inconsiderate people are of birds and people photographing birds. They seem blissfully unaware of the impact they are having on the creatures around them. On this occasion there was a slight silver lining as it gave me an opportunity to photograph a Reef Heron in flight.

The light was not ideal as the bird was backlit but this added to the silver lining theme with some rim light. I managed a burst of images and the above is probably the best of them.

A couple of days later while photographing kingfishers at another location I found a Reef Heron again (possibly this same bird) and was just getting into position to photograph when a dog walker threw a ball which scared the heron off so all I got was a departing shot of a frightened bird. The next day we went on a long hike, part of which included the same stretch of beach and in the distance I again saw the heron. He was feeding in the wavelets and heading toward me so I stopped and waited. Again an inconsiderate walker approached too close and flushed him but this time he flew straight toward me as I crouched at the edge of the shore. Locking focus and tracking a series of images I ended with a full frame image with sharply focussed eye as he passed me. The excitement was reminiscent of my adventure photographing a Blue Duck in flight.

Comparing this series of images with that at the top of the post shows why I like soft diffused light. The lower contrast is much nicer for showing the details of the bird.

Photo with Nikon D850 and Nikon 500mm f5.6PF lens