I’m a heron-stalker when it comes to photography, always looking for a close up of a stately bird, the more regal the pose, the better. It’s rare that I can get close enough to try.
At Squaw Creek/Loess Bluffs Wildlife Refuge, Mound City MO
But the funny part is, the birds must sense a camera is nearby. And they’re fast. The joke is almost always on the photographer — they can fly away in an instant, or like this: turn their backs and shake that booty…
On a recent trip to Piedmont Park in Atlanta, I found the resident heron unusually close to the turtle pond… until I got there with my camera. Then s/he took off. I whipped my camera out to catch the flight. The thumbnail on my viewing screen looked great. Then I downloaded the picture.
Oops, those chicken-legs don’t look so stately after all.
Swans are just as bad. Here’s what happened when I tried for a photos of a graceful three …
Three graceful swans? Nope — two took a last-minute dive.
What’s a photographer to do but keep trying?
More on Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge
Hoarder Comes Clean 
I thought the photo of the Heron was really good, chicken legs or not! It’s so hard to capture birds in flight. And also good timing that it shook its booty at you 🙂 Sometimes I just like to click along without much thought and hope I got the shot I wanted.
A little (well maybe a more than a little) undignified, like a lady with her skirts held up. Thanks for looking!
They can be so entertaining. 😀 😀
Thanks for taking a look! I appreciate your photo challenges — Sandy
I got a good laugh out of these! I inevitably miss these shots also, but I kind of like all of yours. The ones in the stick-filled pond are nice abstract wildlife art, and the leggy one is just fun to study anatomically – so fragile!
The heron just looks so vulnerable with it’s ‘skirts’ up — or maybe it’s the droopy feet. (forgive me if I’m glad to hear you miss some shots too)– Sandy