Preening

I love to get shots of herons that are doing something other than stand like statues gazing at the water. This is not meant to be critical of the stereotype heron on one leg shot, it is just that I am lucky enough to see so many herons that after a while they get a bit boring. So, a bit of activity is what I am looking for, and in this case he is preening; I love preening shots, which is why I chose this one, despite the necessity to chop him off mid calf. I removed a galvanized pipe in front of which he was standing, with the spot healing brush and content aware tool in CS5, but there was too much going on around his feet, so snip!