Fierce. Focused. Fed.

Spend enough time being photographed and you learn to ignore the cameras. Movie actors, of course, must seem to ignore them when working, but professional golfers must really ignore them, even as every swing and facial expression is captured and transmitted to the watching crowds. The same applies to professional curlers, although the crowds are smaller.

Large birds that frequent accessible swamps and estuaries must be made of the same impervious stuff as professional athletes. If I move slowly, stand back, and let the zoom do the work, these birds often reward me by ignoring my presence. In this busy state park, have they learned to ignore people with cameras? Maybe. People in general? More likely.

Certainly, this past week’s tricolored heron was focused on small fishes, not on me. The great blue heron seemed interested only in grabbing “anything within striking distance” as the Cornell Lab describes their diet of fish, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, insects, and other birds.

Tricolored heron

Great blue heron

As a large mammal I’m of no interest as prey to either bird; as a large, slow-moving mammal standing well outside any distance at which I could strike them, I’m of no immediate interest as predator either. We have what we might call a tacit agreement: If I don’t get jumpy, neither will they.