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Archive 2016 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

matthewo
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

Congratulations to matthewo for winning Feature Thread of the Week with 23 votes - View Previous Winners

Blood is in the water.

This was a near dusk heron fight, one stood its ground and the intense fighting lasted 15-20 seconds. They were trying to drown each other and one of them impaled the other through the neck. One heron ended up flying off, but the impaled one kind of staggered off, I am not sure if the injury was life threating or not, but the heron did have blood on its beak from the incident.
The water reflection was the last bit of sun lighting up the late autumn trees. The orange / red reflection adds to the ambiance of blood in the water, theme.

The Start

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Edited on Nov 22, 2016 at 09:00 PM · View previous versions

Nov 22, 2016 at 05:07 PM

matthewo
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

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Edited on Nov 22, 2016 at 09:05 PM · View previous versions

Nov 22, 2016 at 05:08 PM

matthewo
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

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Edited on Nov 22, 2016 at 09:06 PM · View previous versions

Nov 22, 2016 at 05:08 PM

steve_a_reno
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

Great action shots. I think the poor bird on the bottom just wanted to get out of there but top bird was going to drive his authority home.

Nov 22, 2016 at 05:20 PM

Karl Witt
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

That is simply amazing photography and one heck of an episode that you did an outstanding job recording!

Kind of a Holy Grail of a battle sequence, congrats and great presentation! You have my vote!

Karl

Nov 22, 2016 at 05:35 PM

Scrumhalf
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

Wow, wow. Amazing shots!

Nov 22, 2016 at 05:45 PM

matthewo
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

Thanks all.

Funny thing is the light was nearly gone, and we were all day out around this spot with no activity. Normally we look for eagles, my friend left and I packed up my equipment but something just told me to stay a few more minutes. I basically pulled out my D500 and 500mm F4 and sat down and when I saw the Heron fly up to the other one I knew it was on, I didn't expect the intense battle I saw unfold but I pushed the D500 down at 10FPS for 15-20 seconds and came away with 150-200 shots of this, also nearly all were in focus and the only downside was cropping a little bit and 1400 ISO on the d500, kinda wish I would have been using my D4, but oh well.

Nov 22, 2016 at 06:02 PM

louie champan
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

Outstanding documentation of the action you witnessed. Very well done.

Nov 22, 2016 at 06:35 PM

morris
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

Excelent action set Matthew

Morris

Nov 22, 2016 at 06:43 PM

Douglas L
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

Incredible action shots!

Nov 22, 2016 at 07:11 PM

hampchamp
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

Great set .

Nov 22, 2016 at 07:22 PM

kmunroe
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

very nice indeed Matthew

Nov 22, 2016 at 08:06 PM

kwilliam8
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

Stunning sequence wonderfully captured! We have a lot of GBHs around here, and I have never seen anything quite like this. I wonder how the one on top fared after getting impaled. These images got my vote. Thank you so much for posting these images!!!
Keith W.

Nov 22, 2016 at 08:18 PM

CosmicCruiser
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

spectacular!! I can't believe the detail in that light.

Nov 22, 2016 at 08:19 PM

Warkari
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

mind-blowing! Action at its best

- Amit

Nov 22, 2016 at 09:05 PM

matthewo
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

Thanks everyone for your comments I really appreciate it.

Although it is hard to tell, the top heron that got impaled in 13 and 14 was the aggressor. The top one did take the spot and ran the other heron off even after being impaled. The one that got impaled kind of stumbled a bit after the fight was over and I watch them for a bit after.

Thing is a friend who shoots this spot as well told me a fisherman told them that there was a killer heron that impaled and killed another one dead on the spot and it washed down the river.

Nov 22, 2016 at 09:14 PM

arbitrage
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

Amazing sequence...love the red in the water that matches the rust colour on the herons.

The BBC NHM Wildlife Photographer of the Year is currently open for its submissions right now.....just saying..

TFS
Geoff

Nov 22, 2016 at 09:17 PM

matthewo
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

also I cannot give the d500 and 500mm f4 lens enough credit, it was pack it in time really for a dx camera, the light turned out to be well lit just dark.

I was shooting at 1/1600th | F4 | ISO 1400 - I think it was probably about the best setting I could ask for to be at really for what I had to work with, I saw the heron come in and I pressed the shutter and held it down, so I didn't really witness much as the view finder was pretty much dark but I have 182 photos within a short period of time with nearly all in focus with no buffer slow down. funny thing is this was after I put my monopod away and changed from my boots back into some new balances, so just sitting there hand holding

Edited on Nov 22, 2016 at 09:28 PM · View previous versions

Nov 22, 2016 at 09:21 PM

Pius Sullivan
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

Amazing captures.

Pius

Nov 22, 2016 at 09:24 PM

surfnron
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Blood is in the Water - Great Blue Heron Battle

Spectacular action and very well captured Matthew ~ Ron

Nov 22, 2016 at 09:36 PM

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