I had no real idea how hard it is to be a Great Blue Heron parent, particularly if you have two youngsters in the nest with one significantly larger than the other. Feeding time in the nest is a real war! But guile won out over brute strength.
I took my son up to the Venice Rookery to try and get him some nice shots for his portfolio. He has cerebral palsy and is somewhat limited in mobility so this is a pretty nice place for him, due to the great accessibility. I got him all setup with my old Bogen 3050 tripod and gimbal head shooting his D90 and my 80-400 AFS with TC 1.4 so he had some decent reach.
He got a good series of some Great Blue’s going at it hammer and tongs. I don’t know who was more excited the birds or Nick. One parent shows up with a belly full of food and the bigger juvenile, nearly as big as an adult bird, all but attacks the parent trying to get fed. Well that apparently was not part of the plan. So after substantial flapping, squawking and hopping around, as well as some tricky gyrations the little guy gets the goods, after which for his efforts he gets attacked by his big brother or sister. Well that apparently didn’t set too well with the adult, and between the adult and the little guy the bigger juvenile gets rudely ejected from the nest to then stand on the shore looking at the nest rather despondently wondering where his next meal is coming from. Mom flies off, leaving little junior comfortably ensconced in the nest with a full belly and big brother is on the far shore wondering what the hell just happened with a resident gator eyeing him up as his next possible meal.
Little Brother standing on his head getting the goods.
Big Brother standing on the shore looking like he is wondering what the hell just happened.
