Night Heron, fishing on the Charles

I live very near to the Charles River in Waltham and the pathway along it is a favorite walking route and photography location. The bird above is a Night Heron and a frequent visitor to this area of the Charles. He can often be seen either just below the dam in Waltham or further down on one of the many small waterfalls. If you are careful you can get pretty close to these birds but if you are too obvious they will fly off. It took me about a half hour to creep close enough to this Night Heron to get this shot. I was still using a 70-200mm lens for this shot but it enabled me to get a very intimate shot of this shy bird.

It’s that time of year again

Aside from shooting from a plane I also shoot a lot of images from a kayak. This gives me a great perspective on many of the birds that populate local rivers as you are so close to their level. I often kayak the same stretch of the Charles River and have become very familiar with its inhabitants. There are a pair of swans that nest every year in the same spot and usually bring four or five signets into the world. Occasionally I am lucky enough to get up close to these little guys without disturbing their parents too much. This allows me to get very intimate images of their care, feeding and preening. This one certainly has an ahhhh factor about it.