Friday, November 7, 2008

Galloping grace

Grace under pressure. Heard that one?

I came up over this mound at the spillway out to the west of New Orleans a few weeks back and this egret and I came almost eye to eye. When you're carrying a wingspan of a dozen feet, it is always better to get a forewarning that something is coming. Surprises are not good. That's because these big birds take a bit of energy to get up into the air. Though I knew he was moving as quickly as he could -- it's neck stuck straight out and he flapped mighty gust of winds down at the surface of the water -- he was slow to get any real speed. It all looked so graceful. So slow motion. So much grace under pressure.

Then he was airborne and swooped around in a large arc, settling around 300 feet away in the high grasses. Gracefully.

Hey, this is a SkyWatch Friday Post. Click THIS LINK to see other SkyWatch Friday posts

--steve buser

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Steve,

Unfortunately this is not a Sky watch post. Everyone has great leeway in posting for Skywatch - but...Sky is a must!
Sorry - but we have to remove your link.
Your Skywatch Team

Anonymous said...

It is a beautiful bird, Steve. And caught in a hard to get pose.

raf said...

Sublime - this creature, this image!

photowannabe said...

What a graceful, beautiful creature. I can feel the motion just looking at the picture. Great job.

Jilly said...

This is so fantastic, Steve. Your description of its motion is so interesting too.

Jane Hards Photography said...

Perfectly graceful

Wanda said...

Well it looks like she's flying away in her wedding gown...

So lovely...so white....

LOL:Wanda

Chrissy said...

Great shot!

Virginia said...

just a gorgeous sight. You capture them so perfectly Steve.
V

AphotoAday said...

great capture...

Chica, Cienna, and Cali said...

you get the best out of your birds, Steve...it's like they want to be photographed by you :)