Featured Image - Summer 2000

Yellow-crowned Night Heron 

Occasionally seen  wading Oklahoma's marshes, swamps, lakes, lagoons, and rocky shores, Yellow-crowned Night Herons are somewhat secretive and hunt mostly at night or in dim light.  Possessing keen eyesight, they quietly stalk their quarry and catch a variety of fish, crayfish, insects, and vertebrates.  They have even been known to eat young birds. They usually nest in clumped trees or shrubs on dry land, and their large nest is made from twigs and sticks, lined with rootlets and leaves.  Yellow-crowns are fairly solitary but sometimes gather in loose colonies.  

 I first noticed this bird while driving the back roads near Lake Thunderbird in south-central Oklahoma.  It was late afternoon, and I was had been photographing in and around the lake perimeter. He was in a marsh near the road and didn't seem to notice as I drove by.  After pulling off the road, I grabbed my tripod-mounted camera and slowly walked about a hundred yards, stopping frequently. I got to within 40 yards of the heron, and he surprisingly was not spooked. While he was fully aware of my presence, his attention remained on fishing. I watched and photographed as he caught several small minnows. The light was fading fast, and my shutter speeds were getting as low as 1/40th second.  Some of the slides showed blurred movement, and this "static" shot between catches was among the best. If you look closely, you can see a water droplet on his bill, as he had just swallowed a fish. 

A few minutes after this exposure was made, he looked over at me and let out a loud "quawk," as if to say, "did you get enough pictures?" He then gracefully lifted off the water and flew toward the setting sun, and I walked back to my car. 

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