{"id":20956,"date":"2025-03-23T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-23T05:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/?p=20956"},"modified":"2025-03-23T07:18:39","modified_gmt":"2025-03-23T12:18:39","slug":"great-blue-heron-hunting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/great-blue-heron-hunting\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Blue Heron Hunting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>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&#8217;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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fws.gov\/refuge\/aransas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Aransas National Wildlife Refuge<\/a>. While I wasn&#8217;t able to photograph any &#8220;Whoopers&#8221; on this trip, I did get  a distant glimpse of seven magnificent cranes. I\u2019m already looking forward to returning soon to capture more of these incredible birds in their natural habitat.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250318-rockport-beach-park-020-edit.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1125\" data-attachment-id=\"20957\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/20957\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250318-rockport-beach-park-020-edit.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1500,1125\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Terry B. Kahler&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;ILCE-7RM4A&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;Great Blue Heron Hunting&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1742344064&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;\\u00a9 Terry B. Kahler 2024&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;487&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;1600&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0008&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Great Blue Heron Hunting&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Great Blue Heron Hunting\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Great Blue Heron Hunting&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Great Blue Heron Hunting&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250318-rockport-beach-park-020-edit-750x563.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250318-rockport-beach-park-020-edit.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250318-rockport-beach-park-020-edit.jpg\" alt=\"Great Blue Heron Hunting\" class=\"wp-image-20957\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250318-rockport-beach-park-020-edit.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250318-rockport-beach-park-020-edit-750x563.jpg 750w, https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/20250318-rockport-beach-park-020-edit-500x375.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Great Blue Heron Hunting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>This image was taken with my <a href=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Sony-A7R-IV.png\">Sony A7R IV<\/a> using my <a href=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Sony-100-400mm-Lens.jpg\">Sony 100-400mm lens<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can view my Birds of Texas collection by clicking <a href=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/texas-birds\/\">here<\/a>. Please use the section below to post your comments, questions, or suggestions.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"177\" height=\"49\" data-attachment-id=\"18306\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/2022\/01\/coyote-hunting\/t-kahler-logo-white-no-c-mini-e1490323340853\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/T-Kahler-Logo-White-No-C-Mini-e1490323340853.png\" data-orig-size=\"177,49\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"T Kahler Logo White No C Mini E1490323340853\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/T-Kahler-Logo-White-No-C-Mini-e1490323340853.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/T-Kahler-Logo-White-No-C-Mini-e1490323340853.png\" src=\"https:\/\/tkahler.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/T-Kahler-Logo-White-No-C-Mini-e1490323340853.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18306\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">T. Kahler Photography<br \/>\u00a9 2025 T. Kahler Photography, All Rights Reserved<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-css-opacity\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Great Blue Heron hunting fish in the Rockport Beach Park area located in Rockport, TX. Captured in the Spring of 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149],"tags":[480,1654,1088,806],"class_list":["post-20956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wildlife","tag-birding","tag-blue-heron","tag-rockport-texas","tag-texas-birds","post_format-post-format-image"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Great Blue Heron Hunting - T. 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