Stalking the Great Blue Heron

It was nearly impossible to chose a picture today! I took about 300 of them at the beach this morning and 300 more at the aquarium we visited today.

We woke up at 6:00 to go out on the boat. The bay was smooth as can be. The kids took turns on the knee board. Andrew on the wake board. Got some video of him, too. Then the battery died and I didn't get any tape of my kids! Oh well. Perhaps another day.

I spotted a large bird perched on the swim dock as we pulled out of the marina. I took like 50 pictures of him with the zoom lens, trying to figure out what kind of bird it was. To my surprise, he was still napping 2 hours later when we got done towing the kids around. We walked over to the shoreline to get closer pictures. I was delighted when he woke up! So funny to see him stretch his looooonnnnnggg legs out, then his llooooonnnnngggg neck. He let out a sqawk and gracefully glided away....I gleefully snapped 100 pictures of the moment. There were so many to choose from.

In the afternoon we visited the La Jolla Aquarium with the kids. Lots of trial and error taking pictures of the beautiful fishes behind the glass. Came out with some beauties!

I just had to pic the heron. It delighted me to get him in flight. The one who visited my backyard last year aluded me...at last I got one! (or 100 or so)