Nature Photography

This year was not a big year for birds for me, however that does not mean it was without birds at all. I actually ended up gathering quite a few bird photos, I just ended up having to spend most of my time processing my astrophotography (which requires a hundred times more effort than regular photographer per image.) I have a bit of a backlog of bird photos to share.

One of the most amazing moments this year was when I started to walk across a bridge in Cherry Creek. This bridge crosses over one of the inlets from the Cottonwood Creek Wetland into Cherry Creek Reservoir itself. There is a small dam there, and usually it’s empty…however on this day, there was a great blue standing right out in the open on the middle of the dam. These are some of the most skittish birds in Colorado, they really don’t like to be disturbed, and will fly at pretty much anything. For some reason, this one turned his head and looked at me, and just stared. Blown away, I dropped my tripod, upon which my lens was already situated, lightly onto the wood bridge and framed a shot. Great Blue took a step just as I opened the shutter, and slowly moved towards a log jutting out of the dam. Still, he didn’t fly, so I grabbed a couple more shots.

A runner showed up at that time, and unwilling to slow or be deterred, he ran right across the bridge despite me pretty much taking up the whole thing with this giant, beautiful bird out in front of me. (You would think some people would evaluate the situation and take the hint, with the photographer not moving, to stay back and not ruin his shot…alas, no one seems to think that way.) Suffice it to say, Great Blue flew off at that point. 😉

Earlier that same day I’d captured some other shots of another GBH. I was struck by how deftly and with barely a ripple he would jab at the water. Snowy Egrets have a rather apt name…they are quite eager, and often slosh and splash about in their jabs for prey. The Great Blues, on the other hand, are slow, careful, calculating and extremely precise. Barely a ripple.