A Great Blue Heron hunting for fish along the beach at Rockport Beach Park in Rockport, Texas. Last week, I returned to the area with a friend to photograph birds, with a special focus on the famous Whooping Crane. It had been quite a while since I’d done any bird photography, so I was a bit rusty. We decided to visit the local park and see what we could find. To my surprise, I saw this Heron expertly capturing and then devouring a fish right before my eyes.
Rockport is a popular destination for birders, as many species can be found in the area. The Whooping Cranes, in particular, can be seen in the wild by at the nearby Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. While I wasn’t able to photograph any “Whoopers” on this trip, I did get a distant glimpse of seven magnificent cranes. I’m already looking forward to returning soon to capture more of these incredible birds in their natural habitat.
This image was taken with my Sony A7R IV using my Sony 100-400mm lens with a 1.4x Teleconverter which provided me with a total reach of 560mm. The focal length was set at 487mm as the bird was quite close The camera was set on Manual mode with the aperture set at f/8, shutter speed at 1/1250th of a second, and the ISO set at 1600. I handheld the camera. This is a single image processed in Lightroom and completed in Photoshop using Topaz AI to reduce the noise and Nik Color Efex 7.
You can view my Birds of Texas collection by clicking here. Please use the section below to post your comments, questions, or suggestions.
T. Kahler Photography
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That’s a great shot, T. Kahler. Bravo !
Nice shot. Hope you are well.
Terry, beautifully sharp photo.
The Great Blue Heron seems to be very elegant