A pair of Great Blue Herons nestbuilding in a rookery located in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. I observed this couple for a long time as one of the birds went out looking for sticks while the other took the payload and positioned it strategically in the nest. Not sure how these sticks build a comfortable place to raise their young, so, I looked into it.
Come to find out, Great Blue Herons construct their nests from medium to large twigs as you see in this photo, but they line the interior with moss, leaves, grass, and other softer materials. If not damaged by the storms, Herons tend to reuse their nesting grounds for many years and maintain them carefully throughout the breeding season. They are also colonial nesters. This rookery is a testament to that. Truly a sight to see.
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 800. 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.
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T. Kahler Photography
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Beautiful shot!
Great catch! I like your composition that tells a nice story.
Thanks Rick!
You must be a very patient person. Great shot…magazine cover quality!
Thanks Tom!