As much as I try to be ready to capture shots of birds in flight that might chance to pass overhead when I am in wide open areas, or to adjust my settings to capture a small bird hiding in the shadows, sometimes the only thing I can do is click the shutter – and hope to capture whatever happens!

That’s what happened the other day when I spotted this Great Egret.  I looked around and saw him standing on the railing, scratching his chin.

Then he quickly fluffed up his feathers. . .

. . . and suddenly lifted his huge wings, and took off.

He flew right at me!!  I wasn’t sure whether to duck or shoot – with my camera, of course 🙂

No way to correct my camera settings for the motion or the white highlights – or anything else.  But I kept the photos anyway, just to remember the fun of the moment~!

A second later, he touched gently down on the other side of me, and set off on his late afternoon fishing expedition.