American Bittern with Eastern Hognose snake

[Larry Hitchens]

Canon 5D, Lens Sigma 800mm F5.6 AutoFocus
Settings ISO 400 F5.6 1/1300Sec

[Hillebrand Breuker]

the moment is excellent, but I feel that the image could be improved by showing it a bit bigger and give it a bit more attention in the post processing.

[Larry Hitchens]

Okay, I adjusted the image by cropping the subject more closely.
Thanks
Larry

[Milo Burcham]

Cool action that you got to witness/capture. I'll leave the technical comments to the others but though that I would weigh in on the snake ID. Are you sure about a hognose? Looks more like a common watersnake (or other watersnake spp) although it is hard to tell for sure. Unless it is a black phase, hognose snakes have spots rather than bands as this snake does. Great find, regardless!

[Larry Hitchens]

Thanks, you may be correct, I am used to seeing the Northern Watersnake fully grown 15-20 feet and very very
colorful not a drab brown and black like this one, I have a good photo of one that was at least 15 feet long
send me your email and I will send you a copy.
Larry hitch@goeaston.net