Herons are not known for being too happy about people nearby but the ones in Juanita Bay are very used to the people on the boardwalks and they don’t seem to be bothered about how close they are.  I had spent a fair bit of time on one boardwalk chatting to some photographers and we had discussed the heron that was over by the next boardwalk.  As we headed our separate ways, I figured I would go across to see if I could get any shots of the bird.

The light was fading fast so I was shooting at higher ISOs than I would have liked but I was pleasantly surprised that the R3 seemed to have a cleaner result than I would have expected with the 1DXII.  Technology does move on of course, but I think thinks have plateaued a bit in that area so this was a nice result.  The heron was quite close in and, since I only had the 500 with me, I had to chose my location carefully.  The eye tracking did a pretty impressive job with the bird as long as it was not looking directly at me (or away of course).

I did got with high frame rates to try and catch strikes with the food.  Unfortunately, the bird was not having a great time.  I got one strike but it was not a fish but a piece of bark.  Another “catch” provided to be a stick.  Maybe this heron is the sharpest bird in the bay.  Overall, I was pleased with the results and I was more happy about the ability to let the autofocus work across the image so I could compose how I wanted rather than based on the location of autofocus points.