The (Metaphorical) Big Fish

This post is not really about fish but it is inspired by anglers.  Fishermen and women have stories and the best stories are about fish that got away.  As these stories are told and retold the fish get bigger, they fight harder and they leap more dramatically.  Taking photos of animals is kind of like fishing because lots of times the big ones get away.  Here are some of the ones that got away from me photographically. 

This White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) saw me bring up the camera and it sprung away.

A Cooper's hawk (Accipiter cooperi) was perched near the Salisbury, NC Greenway.  As I tried to take a picture the hawk flew toward me with a glare in its eyes.

This large blue dragonfly, an Eastern Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis) was using a twig for a perch.  This is the Eastern Pondhawk leaving the perch.

A male Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) escaped from focus at a feeder in our yard. 

A juvenile Five-lined Skink (Eumeces fasicatus)was climbing fast up the wall of our house and ran out of the frame.

This male Summer Tanager (Piranga rubra) was perched in a scrubby tree on a Piedmont Prairie in Mecklenburg County, NC.  Then it flew.

I was in a swamp in Rowan County, NC trying to get the definitive picture of a Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea) .  This male jumped at the wrong moment.  

This Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) was feeding in a pond in Palm Beach County, FL when it took a dive.

I was photographing Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) in Spencer, NC when this one bounded away.

A Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) was hunting along a creek in Clayton County, GA when it decided I was too close and flew away. 

A Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) departs from a Tropical Milkweed (Ascelpias curassavica) in Salisbury, NC.

Driving through Florida's Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a September afternoon, Diane and I could not believe our luck.  Two Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus) were roosting in the same dead pine.  When we got close enough to take a picture, a Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) decided to land in the same tree.  You can see one Peregrine still at the top of the tree and the other Peregrine, which was displaced by the Vulture is just coming out from behind the tree on the left.  The Vulture is landing in the middle. 

We took a boat this summer in Alaska and the captain had posted a sign that said, "There are no bad birds".  I try to say, "There are no bad pictures", but I am not so sure.