Venice Rookery, FL is a very special place where new life is celebrated every spring. Courtship of the herons and egrets is part of the excitement, eggs and nestlings is some more but the best part is the unscripted. Whether vying for platform space or spouse attention, all the bird species present so some type of display. Great Egrets seem to have as part of their theatrics flight chases and typically it’s just a couple that constantly go at it. So it was yesterday at the Venice Rookery. Once I saw the two who wanted to challenge each other in the air, I followed them as they postured with my finger on the shutter release for when they took to the air. Then I would follow the chasing egret in the viewfinder. Then it was simple panning with that one individual, shooting when the background looked good. And in that split 1/1200 the camera captured that elegance that flight is a beautiful thing.