GBH Working Hard (and one near collision)

PrescottPhotog

Hi Everyone,

All day long I watched these GBH's fly into the tall grass and woods hauling branches back to their nests. They have been nesting for weeks, but they just keep adding to them. They would fly over, dig up or break off a heavy branch and fly back. It was very interesting to watch.

The last two you have to check out. This is what it looks like when you are following a GBH with a 500mm as it comes in to land not knowing you are there. The shots are OOF because I snapped them when it was inside my minimum focus range. The last one is just before it almost collided with me trying to land right on top of me. It figured out I was there as I was ducking out of the way.. coming within inches of hitting me. Luckily I was shooting handheld or it would have taken out my tripod.:rofl

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

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#11 Coming right at me not seeing me.. about 30 feet away and moving fast.

--
#12 Still doesn't see me, pulling up to land on top of me.. misses by inches. To close for comfort:barb

jwear

great shots --were is the nest

dbaker1221

fantastic shots

PrescottPhotog

jwear wrote:

great shots --were is the nest

Hi Jeff.. There is a huge grove of HUGE trees, (which is very uncommon around here.. trees that is) and the GBH and Cormorants are nested together. The woods is under about 3 feet of water because of our heavy rains. Normally you could walk through the grove but not this year so you can't get anywhere near them.. which they love. There are so many nests in the trees it is impossible to count (dozen and dozens of GBH and Cormorants). Here is the only picture I can get and it is only a small part of the grove (with 500mm) where the nests are, can't get anything better until the water goes down, it is totally blocked by the lake.

http://www.webblinks.com/postings/heron_sm/h_13.jpg

jwear

we have something similar for the cormorants but the GBH nest I know of are very hard to shoot :cry

jhowdy

Very nice work Chris, I enjoy studying the details you have captured. Thank you for sharing.

PrescottPhotog

dbaker1221 wrote:

fantastic shots

Hi Dave.. Thanks for viewing and for your comments !!

PrescottPhotog

jhowdy wrote:

Very nice work Chris, I enjoy studying the details you have captured. Thank you for sharing.

Hi Jack.. Thank you for your nice comments !!

imax

Thank you so much for posting these. I love #3 and #7. Definitely very nice. I recently came across a nesting grounds here in the Hollywood area and I am looking forward to spending some time there. Once again very nice!

Joe

Maestro

Great shots of a GBH getting what it needs for its nest! Nice and sharp are all the shots well expect for the near collision. That is just funny!

Harryb

Good set Chris.

Dennis Kaczor

Very nice Chris very nice work, sure was a close one for you, it had me laughing at the last 2 images.

PrescottPhotog

Harryb wrote:

Good set Chris.

Hi Harry.. Thanks for viewing and for your comments !!

PrescottPhotog

Dennis Kaczor wrote:

Very nice Chris very nice work, sure was a close one for you, it had me laughing at the last 2 images.

Hi Dennis.. Thanks for your comments. I was laughing too AFTER he finally veered off and did a go-around. This is the second time this has happened to me but the first time the GBH came in from behind me and scared the living you know what out of me..

raptorcaptor

You're not supposed to sit in the nest! At least not with a 500!
Great set!

PrescottPhotog

raptorcaptor wrote:

You're not supposed to sit in the nest! At least not with a 500! Great set!

Hi Glenn, I wasn't at the nest.., I got there early and broke off a bunch of dead branches in front of me so I had more shooting room, I was right on the edge of the water hiding behind the stack of branches.. and this guy honed in on the stack of branches thinking.. hmmm, why should I go dig them up when this nice stack is laying right here on the edge of the water. I felt like a pile of hamburger in a lions den when he was bearing down on me..