Snowphotography: Grey Heron in Bijlmerweide

NL. Deze blog post in het Nederlands

I’m sure I wasn’t the only photographer out there with my camera this Monday, right after the first snowfall of the year… We haven’t had such a thick layer of snow in years, and it resulted in fantastic images! In my local area: Bijlmerweide in Amsterdam Zuidoost, I was able to photograph this grey heron—first from a distance, in the landscape near the water, in the falling snow. Later, he gradually came closer.

After watching me from a distance for a while, and then, to my surprise, walking straight towards me, it finally swerved and circled me with a stately, purposeful stride.

There it stood still again, watching me intently… so close now, and so relaxed, that I could easily get a close-up with the telephoto zoom…

A special experience: being stalked by a heron. Only much later did I realize that, because of the plastic bag around my camera, he probably thought he was going to be fed… So, begging heron! 😀 Too bad for him: I didn’t have any food with me either. But I did get a nice series of photos!

And the heron? … once he was truly convinced I had nothing to offer him, he took to the wing and slowly winged away, looking for a snack a little further away!