I like this frozen motion as the bird transitions from flight to landing approach. I thought this transition occurred closer to the landing spot but everything happens so fast hard to tell without the stop action a camera provides.

These birds were quite active on this power pole. The two on the left are females. I think the one on the right is as well, but I can’t see the red patch and where it sits. For females, the red is only on the very back of the head and for males, it is larger patch and extend over the top of the head.

Here’s a picture of a male and his larger red cap.

The good news is that the trees and shrubs hid me a bit, allowing me to get fairly close. The bad news is that as this one started to move, I didn’t have clear sight lines. My Canon R5 with animal eye autofocus, kept the bird in focus nicely. That doesn’t work for me consistently on smaller birds, but it worked great for these photos.

To the right of this bird, there were three other great egrets feeding in shallow water. I was watching this bird because I sensed he became aware of my presence and was ready to take flight. I got that right, and look forward to when I get everything right–including clear slight lines.

This is a classic angle and pose. It’d be a bit boring if it wasn’t such an interesting bird. The eagle can be identified at a distance by it’s distinctive and powerful wing beat. It’s massive chest holds both the pectoralis muscle for the down stroke and the supracoracoideus which provides the upstroke. Amazing bird.

He’s resting on his tail which is common for most woodpeckers. Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers breed in Canada and the northern portion of the U.S. from Maine to North Dakota. They spend winters in the southern U.S. allowing me a chance to spot them.

Here she is nibbling on a berry.

The male cardinals are so very striking, I too often overlook the beauty of their mate.

What happened next was the real treat. Another Great Blue Heron flew in aggressively and the two Herons began a magnificent display. The newly arrived Great Blue Heron assumed this upright and spread wing posture.

Checking the internet for information about this behavior, I found this wonderful blog, featheredphotography.com, with some pictures of the same behaviour. The blog included information they credited to Cornell labs (requires a subscription with Cornell World of Birds):

The most spectacular display given by herons on the foraging grounds is the Upright and Spread Wing display that is given when two herons approach one another. The neck is nearly fully extended and tilted slightly over the back, the head and bill are held above the horizontal, and the wrists are drooped or held away from the body exposing the black shoulder patch of the adult. Sometimes the wing nearest the opponent is drooped lower than the opposite wing and the body plumes are erected. As opponents approach one another, the head and bill are raised closer to the vertical and the neck extended farther over the back.

The birds lowered their wings, but kept their heads and body plumes raised as their moved toward one another.

Their movements were measured and graceful, as they moved in a circle together and then as they slowly moved away from each other while keeping their heads and feathers raised.

I was very close to the woodpecker, but he was fully shaded so high ISO. He was working this tree for several minutes and was quite active posing. Luckily he stayed in sight, because he would have startled if I needed to move around very much. He flew to the backside of a nearby tree following his mate and I didn’t have a good angle on either bird. Too bad.