A Great Blue Heron landing on a nest at a rookery located in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. As I mentioned in my previous post, I made a trip to the area with a friend to photograph birds along the Texas coast. The Great Blue Heron, along with other native birds, are plentiful in this area. We watched as these magnificent birds flew in and out of the rookery. They provided countless opportunities for great photography.
Great Blue Herons nest in single pairs, in single-species or multi-species colonies. They tend to nest in relatively undisturbed sites where they are buffered from disturbance. The rookery in the Refuge is a perfect habitat as the rookery is far from roads and densely populated areas. Typical nesting habitats include lowland swamps, upland hardwood forests, islands, forest-bordered oxbows, ponds, reservoirs, and riparian woodlands, including conifers.
This image was taken with my Sony A7R V using a Sony 600mm f/4 lens I rented from Lens Rentals. The camera was set on Manual mode with the aperture set at f/8, shutter speed at 1/1600th of a second, and the ISO set at 640. I used a tripod for stability. 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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