Wildlife Photo Challenge Day 6-A – Training Day

This is day six of my photo challenge requested by my friend Don Bromberg. A bunch of photographers from all over the planet are participating and it will be easy for you to participate too.

Participation… Participation… Choose 7 of your favorite photos and share one each day for 7 days on your timeline to your friends and the world. I challenge ALL my photographic friends to this challenge.

This photo was captured in Viera Wetlands (Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands), just outside Melbourne, Florida. Jo, my wife, and I not only take photos of wildlife but also spend a lot of time just watching the behavior of our subjects. We have been watching one special nest on a highly identifiable Palm tree in the center of the tract at Viera for several years. Season after season we’ve seen a heron pair raise some beautiful babies from that nest.

We were visiting one afternoon when we noticed the mom fly from the nest to the pool below. For about 2 hours we watched this heron take the fish in this shot, whack it around on the water then toss it close to the feet of the juvenile herons. The Juvies had to be tempted from the nest above and they watched as “mom” spectacularly slapped the fish on the water, tossed out and waited for the babies to reach down to grab the fish. The chicks seemed excited and interested but after an hour or so of this display they squawked and flapped their way back up to their cozy nest in the sky.

Mom finally swallowed what was left of the fish, flew up to the nest and regurgitated the dinner as she had since they were hatched. I’m sure that the chicks finally caught on and learned to fish for themselves. It was a spectacular thing to see and to understand what was happening.

Wildlife photography is much more than just clicking a picture, to us it’s all about taking some time and enjoying nature’s behavior, we’ve learned so much just watching.