The Deer Whisperer
My Monday & Wednesday evening softball teamclinched first place a couple of weeks ago.
Until Monday, we had won the last 13 games in a row.
On Monday that streak came to an end with a 7-1 loss
against a team we had previously beaten all 3 times we played them.
Our last regular season game is Monday against a team we beat last week.
We had a bye ( no game) tonight.
It was relatively sunny today.
So, after I did laundry and hung the clothes to dry on my backyard clothesline,
I took my camera, hopped in the car and went to 3 nature locations.
First on the list, believe it or not, was a town home complex.
They have 2 very large retention ponds, that not only contain lots of fish,
turtles, mallards and Canadian geese, but frequently there are also
a great blue heron (not today), a great egret (not today) and kingfisher (not today) and a couple of green herons.
I found one of the green herons today. He was near a connecting tube
between the 2 ponds where water passes into the larger pond from the
smaller pond. I looked over the top of the concrete enclosure
and saw him intently looking for small fish in the flow of water.
I wanted to take photos from his side rather than from the top of his head,
so i backed up before he saw me and took off my shoes and slowly went
wading into the pond, walking on top of soft greenery,
finally stepping on large stones.
But it was insufficient to see the heron, who was off to the side
near the wall on the sun side.
I waited for about 15 minutes, but he never moved.
So, with lens pointed where he would likely emerge,
I raised one leg and made a slight splashing sound with my big toe.
That worked somewhat, as he did stretch his neck to see what
the source of the noise was. I was about 15 feet from him.
He saw me, let out a disapproving grunt, and immediately flew
to a tall tree on the other side of the pond.
Well, I did get a couple of shots of him in flight,
but it did not work out as planned.
I was hoping to get shots of him grabbing fish with his beak.
I walked around the pond and found him later perched in a different tree.
But, he was intentionally avoiding me, hopping to different branches,
higher & more occluded from sight.
No big deal, I have LOTS of other green heron shots from FL & NJ.
So, I left the retention pond & town home complex to go to the MUCH larger
Carnegie Lake in Plainsboro/Princeton.
There I photographed swans, black cormorant, and barn swallows in flight (not easy), dragonflies and lots of turtles..
I also met a woman who has interest in photography.
I guess she's in her mid to late 40''s and in excellent shape.
She approached me while i was taking photos of a dark blue dragonfly
whose wings were glistening in the sunlight.
We talked for a long time and she gave me her email address,
so I can send her my photos webpage.
After I left the lake, I went to a large field, where I often see deer.
Several years ago, I also photographed 2 baby foxes (kits) there too.
I did see one of those foxes last year (now juvenile), resting on a fallen dead tree.
He scooted the instant he saw me, which was before I noticed him.
Sure enough, when I got there, one doe and her fawn were in the field about 200 yards
from where I parked my car.
So, I walked keeping a large tree between the deer and myself.
It didn't matter. She was on to me and after a few shots,
she let out a loud snort sending the fawn running away.
She followed, but they only ran about 60 yards and turned to watch me.
So, I walked slowly away from her on an angle, over to the edge of the woods.
From there I slowly walked up across from her and was taking
pictures of her and her fawn for about 20 minutes.
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