{"id":42102,"date":"2026-07-12T22:33:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T02:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/?p=42102"},"modified":"2026-07-12T22:33:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T02:33:41","slug":"briefer-but-still","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/2026\/07\/briefer-but-still\/","title":{"rendered":"Briefer, but still&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Was in Walkabout Studios late yesterday morning when I heard the green heron (<em>Butorides virescens<\/em>) give a warning call, which sounds like a cross between a sharp bark and the sound a sneaker makes on a basketball court. Went out with the long lens, but was first distracted by the barred owlet calling somewhere in the backyard, not far away. I tried to track it, but it moved off before I ever caught a glimpse, so I then returned my attention to the green heron, which was right back on the <a href=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/2026\/07\/privileged\/\" target=\"_blank\">same tree on Turtle Island<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/SamePlace.jpg\" alt=\"green heron Butorides virescens stalking fish on low branch on Turtle Island\" width=\"750\" height=\"558\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-42103\" \/><br clear=\"all\"\/>I crept in close again, though not anywhere near as slowly as last time, partially because I was convinced it was not too concerned with my presence, partially because it was intent on something else and not paying attention to me. So I caught a great pose as it locked in on a potential meal.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/TargetAcquired.jpg\" alt=\"green heron Butorides virescens with neck extnded almost to water surface while hunting\" width=\"750\" height=\"1286\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-42104\" \/><br clear=\"all\"\/>Green herons are about the size of crows, so between that and its own shadow on the water, you can tell it&#8217;s only a handful of centimeters from the surface here, though how it sees anything through the duckweed is beyond me.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/TakinAStab.jpg\" alt=\"green heron Butorides virescens taking stab at small fish from low branch\" width=\"750\" height=\"1361\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-42105\" \/><br clear=\"all\"\/>And then, a halfhearted stab, though it might have arrested it once begun because the fishy disappeared, but at least I got the beak open, even though there appears to be a faint amount of motion blur. Nice neck extension though, much better than crows can do.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/YesHimAgain.jpg\" alt=\"green heron Butorides virescens eyeing photographer with distrust from low branch on Turtle Island\" width=\"750\" height=\"632\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-42106\" \/><br clear=\"all\"\/>I pushed it a bit, trying to get just a little closer, but now the heron&#8217;s attention was no longer on a meal and it eyed me suspiciously for a moment, then elected to fly off to the edge of the pond that was more shrouded in foliage. I sat down and waited a bit to see if it would come back, but nothing further happened. So, just a few frames for my efforts, while more were prevented by my being incautious. Good, but could perhaps have been better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Was in Walkabout Studios late yesterday morning when I heard the green heron (Butorides virescens) give a warning call, which sounds like a cross between a sharp bark and the sound a sneaker makes on a basketball court. Went out with the long lens, but was first distracted by the barred owlet calling somewhere in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[446,445,844,8006],"class_list":["post-42102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature","category-photo","tag-butorides-virescens","tag-green-heron","tag-hunting-behavior","tag-turtle-island"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42102"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42109,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42102\/revisions\/42109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}