This weekend we got to witness some Great Blue Herons that had just arrived around the Greater Montreal area. The usual spots along the St Lawrence. Overly crowded with weekend park-goers and photographers, there’s not a chance in hell to get an original looking image.
First Black-crowned night heron of 2015 (Nycticorax nycticorax)
Although the Great Blue Herons had made their arrival, We didn’t expect to run into a Black-crowned night heron (Nycticorax nycticorax). We were pleasantly surprised. In contrast he wasn’t that excited to see us. The irony is that after running all over the place looking for newly arrived birds, this Black-crowned night heron was literally waiting for us in our very own backyard.
Great blue heron landing (Ardea herodias)
The next morning I hurried out looking for my feathered friends. No one was at the rendez-vous, so I installed myself and waited. It wasn’t long before a Great Blue Heron made his appearance. Although I was very still I’m sure he spotted me and landed further out on purpose. None the less he gave me a dramatic entrance.
First Great egret (Ardea alba) of 2015
An other great surprise was the arrival of a Great egret (Ardea alba). This one caught me by surprise. Naturally a lot less tolerant of human presence than her other two cousins, she actually came the closest to me. That truly made my Monday morning 
Although the conditions weren’t excellent, the Nikon D810 DSLR performed like a champ on this cloudy grey day. Matched up with the new AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/4E PF ED VR and a AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E III focus was quick and precise delivering detailed high ISO images.
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