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American Bittern

Don Ferguson Jr.

Well-known member
I saw an American Bittern early morning in this cold S.C. weather we are having now. He stayed out for a short time then went back in the swamp reeds, never flew.
Don


Bittern-2.jpg


Bittern sun shaft.jpg
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Don,

What great pictures and a pleasant surprise!

You allowed me to learn something fun today! I hadn’t seen pictures like these before with essentially s “herons” that are hardly noticeable!

I love this bird for the way it quietly fits in with nature and is so camouflaged. Who would think it’s a cousins to the easily noticed standout handsome heron!


“It is a well-camouflaged, solitary brown bird that unobtrusively inhabits marshes and the coarse vegetation at the edge of lakes and ponds. In the breeding season it is chiefly noticeable by the loud, booming call of the male. The nest is built just above the water, usually among bulrushes and cattails, where the female incubates the clutch of olive-colored eggs for about four weeks. The young leave the nest after two weeks and are fully fledged at six or seven weeks.

The American bittern feeds mostly on fishbut also eats other small vertebrates as well as crustaceans and insects.” Wikipedia
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Here I would like to comment on this photograph as Art.

4CE91EB2-A9C2-44E6-A24E-CCAFF73FBCC1.jpeg


That it advances left to right and rises gives us a sense of intention by the bird, as we read and write across the page that way too!

The diagonal shadow from its breast down allows the head to be emphasized thus, again giving the subject so much more emphasis.

It’s so well focussed and perfectly drawn that it allows the eye to alternate between getting lost in local father, beak or eye details but then the bold diagonal design pulls us back again and again.

A satisfying work I will return to!

Thanks for sharing

Asher
 

Don Ferguson Jr.

Well-known member
Here I would like to comment on this photograph as Art.


That it advances left to right and rises gives us a sense of intention by the bird, as we read and write across the page that way too!

The diagonal shadow from its breast down allows the head to be emphasized thus, again giving the subject so much more emphasis.

It’s so well focussed and perfectly drawn that it allows the eye to alternate between getting lost in local father, beak or eye details but then the bold diagonal design pulls us back again and again.

A satisfying work I will return to!

Thanks for sharing

Asher
Thanks, Asher for the kind words and glad you like it. Yes, the American Bittern is a master of camouflage.
Don
 
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