Heron in Flight

I saw this heron sitting at the water's edge and hoped to sneak up close enough to get a decent shot without a zoom lens.

This turned out to be a fair shot, but I though I could maybe sneak up closer from behind some low palms.

Of course, I couldn't and ended up startling it away.

Powerful, long wings make the lift off seem efortless.

It is simply amazing to watch them go - those wings are huge.

Even More Rain

You can't quite tell from the picture, but its raining (again). I was thinking how cool it would be to have light poles with little (actually not so little) water bird statues on them.

I was looking at this picture and realized the heron has no 'thumb' on the right foot.

here's the left foot - three toes and a 'thumb'

here's the right foot - two toes and no 'thumb'

Irresponsible fishermen leaving fishing line out? Probably the most likely cause. It seems to have adapted well enough.

Caught an egret in flight. It had tried to land on the fishing dock where the heron was, and I guess that's not allowed!  Crazy thing is that looking closely at this picture it seems the egret has the same missing toe & thumb - odd coincidence, or just a trick of the angle in this photo?

Calm waters, blue skies and white, fluffy clouds. Must be the end of the rain (for now).