The Vole Master an encounter with a Great Blue Heron

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J

Jose Raposo

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I am a firm believer that sometimes we establish a trust connection with our subjects. This particular Great blue heron was approximately 50ft from where I was standing and surprisingly it slowly walked in my direction occasionally stoping to scan the tall grass for prey. It continued walking towards me until it was within 12ft of my position, at this point I had sat down on the ground and proceeded to photograph its approach. I spent the better part of 4hs with this bird as it hunted within a 12ft radius of my position completely unfazed by my presence. During that period it allowed me to swap out my teleconverter, replace batteries, adjust my position etc without it flinching. In total it captured half a dozen voles and a couple of mice during my interaction with it and posed a few times for a portrait. I finally had to leave, I slowly got up and walked away, looking back it continued to hunt but I walked away a sense of wonder, it was an interaction I will never forget.

20241008_Downsview Park_03735 by Jose Raposo, on Flickr
DSC01816 by Jose Raposo, on Flickr
Great Blue Heron by Jose Raposo, on Flickr
Great Blue Heron by Jose Raposo, on Flickr
Great Blue Heron by Jose Raposo, on Flickr
Great Blue Heron by Jose Raposo, on Flickr
Great Blue Heron by Jose Raposo, on Flickr
 
Member's gallery
Great images and what a cool experience. Around here GBH tend to take off at the sight of humans and the only chance to get close is when they are not aware of your presence.
 
Member's gallery
Jose Raposo said:
I am a firm believer that sometimes we establish a trust connection with our subjects. This particular Great blue heron was approximately 50ft from where I was standing and surprisingly it slowly walked in my direction occasionally stoping to scan the tall grass for prey. It continued walking towards me until it was within 12ft of my position, at this point I had sat down on the ground and proceeded to photograph its approach. I spent the better part of 4hs with this bird as it hunted within a 12ft radius of my position completely unfazed by my presence. During that period it allowed me to swap out my teleconverter, replace batteries, adjust my position etc without it flinching. In total it captured half a dozen voles and a couple of mice during my interaction with it and posed a few times for a portrait. I finally had to leave, I slowly got up and walked away, looking back it continued to hunt but I walked away a sense of wonder, it was an interaction I will never forget.

20241008_Downsview Park_03735 by Jose Raposo, on Flickr
DSC01816 by Jose Raposo, on Flickr
Great Blue Heron by Jose Raposo, on Flickr
Great Blue Heron by Jose Raposo, on Flickr
Great Blue Heron by Jose Raposo, on Flickr
Great Blue Heron by Jose Raposo, on Flickr
Great Blue Heron by Jose Raposo, on Flickr
Click to expand...
Beautiful set Jose! Well done. It is amazing when you get opportunities like that. I had a similar situation occur with a great blue on Monday. Unfortunately, he or she didn’t have much luck hunting but it was unaffected by my presence as well. Grabbed a few portrait shots. It appeared to be a young one.
 
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