[squirl033]

It is a good angle, and plenty of feather detail.

A friend on another forum has a colony of herons (30-40) nesting within a few minutes of his home in south Wales.
He gets some interesting shots where they have twigs and things for the nest and aerial shots but nearly all are above him. Occasionally he gets some on the river nearby. His photos sometimes get to the weather stations on TV.
My only heron was taken in the maldives and as it was partial to fish and the fishermen fed it I could get quite close on the couple of occasions I remembered. I mean the beach and snorkelling was a first choice.

great blues like this one are common here, and there are several nesting areas within a few miles of me. they do use sticks to make the shell of their nests, and line it with feathers, moss, stuff like that, to make it softer. the nests can get quite large, often 4-6 feet across. i've got some shots of both nests and some heron chicks (they look a bit like baby pterodactyls), as well as mama feeding the young ones. quite fascinating, really...