Heron teasing me

I went for a 3 hour walk today. Took more than 400 pictures to try to learn what to do, and what not to do, with my new SLR. I believe you learn a lot from making mistakes while shooting.
This bird was teasing me so much. Whenever I swiched off my camera, it would fly right past me. When I had it ready, it would fly away. I shot it in the end, but it's not as good as I wanted it to be. There were a lot of other potential blips, but I had to choose the bird, since it had been such a nightmare to get a picture of it.