Miles Collins

Watching a grey heron trying to catch a fish….

One upside of working away from home from time to time is visiting our other properties and enjoying the location they are set in. Don’t get me wrong, it’s no holiday when I go away but thankfully my employers buy properties in areas devoid of busy roads and ugly buildings which in turn offers some respite from this overworked chef!
I was preparing some notes in my hotel room for a meeting when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a large grey heron stalking across the other side of the river which my room overlooks. This was an opportunity too good to miss and I knew I had to be quick, I also felt sure my employers would grant me three minutes out of a fourteen hour day so I grabbed my camera!

I was some distance away from the heron so I was interested to see how my new Canon 5D Mark Two and 100-400mm would cope with the distance…..

Grey Heron

Photography can be as frustrating as it can be rewarding if not more so, by that I do not mean the mistakes we all make, the missed shot etc but that by concentrating on getting ‘the shot’ we often miss out on the beauty of the subject. I truly believe that for a photographer to capture his or her subject in the best possible light then the photographer needs time to get to know what they are photographing. Nothing, in my opinion illustrates this better than wildlife and capturing birds in flight or hunting for food requires both knowledge and patience.

I am fascinated by the cycle of nature and how one feeds off another in the same way we humans do. Much is made of the mistreatment of our food source by humans and rightly so, we should be held to account for our actions but we should also remember the savagery often shown by one animal to another. Many die a slow and painful death but that is the cycle of life and we can but observe it and look to conduct ourselves in a more humane manner.

I watched this heron as it moved with consumate ease in and out of the waters edge, over stone, grass and muddy embankment with an admirable stealth and gait. The water here runs clear and shallow and I wondered how the heron would fare given its obvious reflection in the water. Stop and start, stop and start. I watched its head move constantly like a boxer missing an oncoming punch. Its long neck stretched out towards the waters edge with its beak almost touching the water in anticipation. On this went until a short stop, a quick look and then…STRIKE!!………

Grey Heron Catching Fish

Within a split second the heron plunged its head into the river, a brief chaos ensued and up came its head again, I rattled off a series of shots hoping to ‘catch the catch’ but the heron had missed and the fish got lucky…this time. Obviously perturbed the heron turned and took flight and the cycle of life continued for another day.