Time to celebrate today i spotted and photographed my first Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) and what a spectacular beauty he is. With some effort I was able to get close enough to him to take the photograph of Figure 1 at the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge – so wonderful. And it was almost warm out. Soon I will have to take a trip to nesting sites at the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge and along Route 2. Spring is definitely here, and we can look forward to a warm season of watching these birds hunt and feed their young.

The image is just a bit grainy because of the ISO and the fact that I had to use both and extended zoom setting and a bit of digital zoom as well. But, as is always true of bird photography , sharpness is in the eyes, and that worked out pretty well in this image.

Canon T2i with EF 100 -400 mm L f/4.5-5.6 IS USM lens at 210 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority E mode, 1/4000 sec at f/7.1 with -1 exposure compensation.