Urban Wildlife

Friday afternoon was cloudy and I didn’t have work, so I wandered down to a city park to see if there were any birds to shoot. There is a pond that is getting a bit low on water, but it usually attracts a lot of ducks. When I got to the park bench I found a heron, and egret, and a bunch of ducks that didn’t seem to mind me being there. I had the park to myself so there was nobody else to bother the birds, so I basically sat on the shore of the pond with my camera while the birds pranced around in front of me.

The birds were focused on catching fish and they seemed to be having a lot of success in the shallow pond. I was a lot closer to the birds than I am usually allowed to get and I was shooting with a 100-400mm lens with plenty of light so I got some good shots. In the image below, the heron is going for a fish, you can see that its eye looks gray because it shuts its inner eyelid when tries to catch the fish.

Below is our heron with a fresh catch. I learned that the heron spears the fish with its beak rather than just reaching down and grabbing it. A few seconds later, he swallowed the fish whole and that was that.

I also managed to hide behind a tree and get a close-up through the branches. Not sure if this is the same heron as they were flying in and out of this area.

The herons finally flew away and I had plenty of photos so I went back home.

I had thought about driving out to the lake on this day for some wildlife but I was able find plenty around a pond in town. I just have to avoid showing much background so you don’t see all the houses in the distance. And that was my wildlife safari within the city limits of Leander. Thanks for reading.

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