Here are the three little green heron chicks taken today at Wakodahatchee. They are growing up fast.
There are so many photographers at the site that it is sometimes difficult to get a spot to take pictures 🙂
Taken with the trusty Canon 40D + 300 f4L with flash dialed back -3 stops. This seems to work just fine with nothing but great fill light. A bit of postproccesing with Aperture 3 and the brand new Photoshop CS5 (woo hoo). There was a very small twig jutting into the very lower right body of the heron chick. It was removed using the fabulous healing brush with content aware on.
You can view a larger version of this image by just clicking on the photo. Wait a second or two until the image loads. Beautiful, is it not!
This is the female little green heron (Butorides virescens). They are common near ponds, marshes and coastal wetlands, hence their presence at Wakodahatchee. The chicks are able to fly after 34-35 days so I will not be able to see them when they fly the coop – unless they want to come to New York. But fear not, the parents will tend to their young for more than 1 month after leaving nest.