Decided to go look for a green heron today

It has been a couple of months since I have done this. It is just as hot here (100 degree plus days), but some sort of temperature inversion thingie is going on, keeping the sun behind clouds and haze, so it is not the kind of day where you can get sunstroke at 7:30am.


No green heron here (unsurprising) but I ran across a disheveled duck


And another duck, plus kayak


I took a few unremarkable pictures of the bison, with rush hour traffic behind them, but I won't bore you with those pics. I hopped into the car to head for another lake where I hoped to see a green heron.

I got a big sidetracked. What is that I see? Something on a park sign.


Ye gads, it is a red tailed hawk, at eye level, not thirty feet up, and close. I stay in the car. There is a wide parking lot off the street.


Proof that I am about 12 feet away. I maneuver my car as close as I can


Finally Hawk moves down to a post.






All the hawk pictures were taken from my car.

At the lake where the green heron could be, I find......................BUGS!






So much for the green heron hunt. Now what is it that they say about expectations?

And what a remarkable Hawk series!

Bravo!

Hopefully soon it won't require a weather event (clouds) for me to get out there some more. Although, the hawk pictures were from my air conditioned car. :rofl:

I stand in awe each time I see one - the rest of the pictures are delightful also (I am partial though and a tiny jealous):-)

If it wasn't me. I have red tailed hawk pictures in my archives, but they are at a much greater distance, and not as detailed. Whenever they decide to perch, they generally stay there awhile, unlike, say, songbirds, for instance. That worked in my favor. Perching on a sign eight feet off the ground? That's not something I have seen in the past.

That hawk appears to be immature with all the white on the breast. Maybe he/she hasn't learned to be afraid yet. I love that second butterfly. The color, the wing motion – wow!

I knew better than to get out of the car. I think that would have scared Hawk away. Some cross country runners (probably from a private school or county school) came up and one said "Look at that owl". Haha. I was surprised they didn't scare off the hawk. Except, well, they sort of kept their distance and continued running when they saw I was taking pictures. I wish I had gotten a better pic of this.

You can just hear the hawk going WTF? :rofl:

it looks like you had a really great day if the pics are any proof. I love the duck with the kayak. That is an excellent photo!

And the hawk! Looks like he was posing just for you and you didn't disappoint! Great job, gal! :D

There was one guy there that had both a bike and a kayak on top of his car. Getting both of those on top of my car would have been enough exercise for the day. But looking at him it was probably like my picking up grocery sacks or something. I just bought a kayak but I'm pretty sure I'll leave it at the Tennessee River, though it would be tempting to use it at Patriot Lake, and be able to check out those islands a bit more closely.

I don't think that my car bothered that hawk in the least, fortunately.

It was 92 in the shade at 7 pm. The second and third hawk pictures are stunning. The eyes are tack sharp - spectacular shots. The second one really belongs in a book. I'm so jealous...

The heat has kept me cooped up here for two months. Even with the clouds today it supposed to get to 98. And it is definitely a sweltering wet hot.

It's so much fun to chase birds with a camera. For me, it is all about the chase. The pictures are just proof.

to find a green heron, you certainly came back with some mighty fine photos.

I especially like the disheveled duck, and your duck plus kayak - looks like he's yearning to jump in the boat! ;-)

That the duck thinks we are odd that we have to get in a boat to float around in the water. I'm pretty much a sucker for duck pictures of all types, but, stalker that I am, the hawk was a bit more exciting for me. However, those pics do lack the "cute" quotient. Ducks are pretty much everywhere you look out there. I almost posted this one. I like the yellow flowers.

one blue heron, for all that! The hawk was magnificent!

I sum the hawk pictures up this way--right place, right time. I wondered what was making me want to go to the park early yesterday morning, since I haven't been since May. Well, I don't think it was a green heron.

sorry about the caps, and too lazy to fix it.

You know I like coming along on them. What you are showing is fabulous in that most of us would not have the opportunity to even see it to even try to take the pictures.

You have winners here to be proud of.
My personal favorite, one I wish I had seen and taken, is the disheveled duck.
I adore that one.

thanks!

Most of them are so well groomed. This one had a bad feather day for sure. It wasn't stormy or windy. I guess the duck had just been fishing, but it had been up on the bank for awhile. But there are so many ducks out there that it is not all that unusual to find one that is interesting in some regard. But the disheveled look was new to me.