This time I was ready, GBH w/ 28-70mm

The other morning I was out tracking a GBH with the 100-400 lens and the heron got to close that I had to wait till he moved away. Well I mounted a 28-70 on the 20D and went to see if I could find him again. He was there and I shot a couple with my 28-70L. Here are a few with a wider perpective. And yes he got close again. Shot at the 70mm end of the range in early morning light. The heron was shaded. For some reason, he was chewing on a small twig...

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As usual you did a perfect job on exposure and capturing your subject in a favorable light (no pun intended ).

What I have noticed about some of your posted GBH's is that they tend to have more of an abundance of reddish hued feathers then the ones I encounter around the lakes here. Do you suppose this is from the abundance of shellfish in their diets ?

Great shots Keith. I guess you will be getting rid of the 100-400 now right? Nice habitat, reflections , composition. Blue makes an interesting observation and the Heron does have a fair amount of rust colored feathers, especially on the side shown in the second image. I photographed a Heron here in Ottawa that also has a lot of rust/reddish colored feathers......Nice work Keith!

Yes I have noticed the reddish colors of thier feathers, I think this may be due the fact that these appear to be younger herons. These two seem to frequent this park daily and usually make a stop at the nearby bird santuary to grab a free meal. As the winter progresses, I have noticed in the past that they do get grayer and have a more pronounced black cap on the tops of thier heads. The majority of my shots have been taken in the early morning sun shortly after sunrise, from about 7:15 and by 8:30 I'm done. By November the breeding colors start to kick in and I think that is when they are most beautiful.

Excellent captures again Keith.

Those are really beautiful, excellent environmental shots, my favorites.

Proof that the 100-400m lens can have it's limitations but the opposite way, in other words, too big.
Good captures Keith and good use of DOF that shows clearly in focus the habitat, which is an advantage of a shorter lens.
Nicely composed shots, well done keith, nice ones.

Nice shots, really like #1

Nice. Very classic Heron pics!!

I had an opportunity similar...but blew it as most of the shots were out of focus...still trying to figure out how I did that!

Great shots!

Nice shots Keith! And yay the scary avatar is gone! =p

28-70mm as birding lens, who would have thought? Keith, your are another person (besides Mitcon) who uses regular lens as birding lens and get fantastic result. These are wonderful photos of the GBH with its habitat.

Think both are great Keith! Little lens for big birds love it.

Zip

Wow,. and I thought getting too close for 200mm was an acheivement!

Very nicely done love the reflection, it amazes me how your birds let you get so close Heron's in the uk are so shy we need 400mm plus to get them- even today i could not get close enough and thats with a 500mm +1.4tc .
Rob.

Superb shots. Exposure, DOF and just about everything else !