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'Look at me preen!' (That wing is over a meter long, rather, its longer than my arm.)
'And here I look like a dinosaur...'
I want to pet it. :(
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Title: The Heron [August 2006]
Notes: I borrowed my dad's camera to get these, its the same as mine but newer. And has ZOOM.
I have always been in awe of Great Blue Herons. Then the heron ate Jumbo.
I'm starting to forgive it.
No really. The thing is practically posing for me now. As if to make up for its feast? And I figured out why they try so hard to look majestic. Its because when the take off they look so ridiculous. I woke up around 4am a few weeks ago and saw it sitting on the fence, it was taller than the fence I think. Its a standard chain link yard fence so its entirely possible. It perched there for a few moments before winging off into the night.
The thing you need to realize is that for a bird that size 'winging off into the night' is less effortless grace than it is random flailing. Both wings flapping wildly, legs flailing in opposite directions and ridiculously long neck pinwheeling out in front. Managing to somehow perch lightly on branches that a crow weighs down doesn't help the effect much either - like seeing a bear comically clinging to a branch barely able to hold a small cat. It defies logic. And gravity.
You'd try hard to look majestic too if you looked that silly when you took off. I included the last photo despite that its so blurry because you get a good look at how prehistoric these avians are. Really, really neat.
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