Some water birds on the Charles River

[jamesmck]

Great Blue Heron (Waltham, MA)


Double-Crested Cormorant (Waltham, MA)


Black-Crowned Night Heron (Watertown, MA)


A few more here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesmck3 ... 7089883866

Thanks for looking.

[PFMcFarland]

Some good bird shots there, James.

PF

[Julio1fer]

Great waterbirds shots. They don't usually stand still posing, you got the right positions. Does not look like you used a long lens, did you?

[jamesmck]

Thanks, Julio. All were shot at pretty long focal lengths - most with an Olympus 75-300mm (on the micro4/3 camera I was using, this gets doubled for a 35mm equivalent). The images on Flickr show the actual focal lengths.

[Brazile]

Great to see the nice birding locally, James. I live about 10 minutes away from there (well, except at rush hour. and should check it out.

Robert

[jamesmck]

Belated thanks to Phil for the comments, and to Robert. Let me know if you want the exact location where I took these shots.

[OpenWater]

Great shots! Interesting to see the color in the Great Blue Herons. Ours here in Indiana are darker than yours farther east.

[jamesmck]

Thanks, Nathan. I wonder if time of year rather than geographical location might explain color differences. Do you mean that the blue/gray parts are darker but the white is still white?

[OpenWater]

Thanks, Nathan. I wonder if time of year rather than geographical location might explain color differences. Do you mean that the blue/gray parts are darker but the white is still white?

Could be. It looks like there is quite a bit of color variation - even a white form in Florida. Ours are mostly a blue-grey and more dark grey than blue. They have some white on their head and wings, but are really fairly dark.

Here is what Cornell's "All about birds" site (my go to site) has to say: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Blue_Heron/id

Mike

[jamesmck]

Could be. It looks like there is quite a bit of color variation - even a white form in Florida. Ours are mostly a blue-grey and more dark grey than blue. They have some white on their head and wings, but are really fairly dark.

Thanks for the link. Mine clearly have more white on the neck and chest. I looked at some older pics taken in the fall last year and the color scheme is pretty much the same as my recent July photos, so time of year does not seem to matter.