I am fully aware of the many shortcomings that these images contain. Despite that, I am quite thrilled to have gotten them because in the five years since I first started taking critter pics, I have only managed to capture a rare few images of birds. (I once got a couple of pics of an American Robin that had flown into a window and was groggy for a short spell as I held him in my hand till he recovered. I once got a few shots of a baby Blue Jay that had fallen out of a nest and I have a few shots of Hummingbirds at a feeder); But I have never managed to get a shot of any other birds despite the fact that I have Cranes, Herons, Egrets, Kingfishers, Hawks, Crows, Woodpeckers, Ducks, Owls, Roadrunners, Songbirds, and numerous perching birds that all live on my land or come to my pond on occasion and I have never been able to get close enough to any of them to get a shot until these images were taken. As I was walking toward the pond, I saw A Green Heron leave the water's edge and land in an adjacent tree. As is usual right now, I had the 55-200mm lens on the camera and I was delighted for this first opportunity to see if it would allow me to get a shot. The Heron seemed somewhat relaxed and as I got closer, it hopped from one limb to another but did not really seem to be worried. By the time that I was directly below him he seemed to be content on his latest perch. I guess he thought the 25-30' of distance he had above me was a safe distance. These birds are very amusing to watch as they walk along the shoreline looking for food. Once potential prey is spotted, they extend their neck and bill forward and start flicking their tails. They take a few cautious steps then jab forward. If nothing is seen or caught, they resume their journey around the edges. When startled, they start making a croaking sound as they fly to the nearest tree and settle onto a limb. I managed to get a number of attempts for a good shot. These were the best 2 of the bunch. It helped that this is a pretty big bird (22" - 55.9cm from tip of bill to tip of tail). I used settings of - 1600 ISO, F-9, 1/250sec for the shot on the right and 1600 ISO, F-8, 1/200sec for the one on the left. The images are pretty grainy and there is a noticeable amount of chromatic aberration in the images but I am excited by the fact that I got something usable at last, lol. Thanks to those who take the time to comment. Lee