Third time lucky ...

You may find it rather outstanding that for the third time in three days I encountered the same heron at almost exactly the same spot at the same time along the river when I was taking, Zoe, our dog for her afternoon walk. I would not blame you for thinking that I had been tinkering with the EXIF data and fiddling the date and that all these shots were actually taken on the same time. However, as this one was taken with my RX100 compact unlike the previous shots I think I can rest my case.

We were standing just about 20 yards away from the bird which was sitting on the bank of the river and maybe because the bird is becoming used to seeing me and the dog he did not move while I took some time to change my camera to continuus shooting which I don't often do with the compact as it is not ideal for action shots as there is no viewfinder and I have to rely on the rear LCD screen. However, I managed to shoot several shots when he flew off though I would perhaps have like more space for him to fly into in the shots. 

The angle of shooting is quite unusual as I am actually above the bird as he swooped down over the river and then climbed up over the opposite bank. It makes him look as though he is flying just a few inches over the grass though in fact it was probably more like a couple of feet or more. What is rather pleasing is the view it has given me of the upper plumage and of the curve of his wings. I promise I won't bore you with yet more shots of herons tomorrow !!

PS I checked on the internet yesterday and there is absolutely no way of sexing herons away from the nest though the males are slightly bigger.