It was Luv II

I was also thinking of titling this blog post "I Have a Headache."

The stretch of river I film in is wide open a half mile in either direction of where I stand. Which means I see a lot of things that don't occur close enough to get high quality shots.  My camera is a couple of generations back and the resolution, while good, is probably not on par with an equivalent film camera. While the lens I use is a decent telephoto, anything occurring more than a hundred yards out, is going to suffer.

Hence, these photos are okay for viewing on a computer monitor, but wouldn't be good enough for print.  Sometimes you have to settle for recording an interesting event in this way.

I was wondering just yesterday, while standing at the river, why any bird watcher would invest in a, say, $2000 optic where they were only able to view an event rather than invest the same money in a camera where they could record an event.  It would seem much more satisfying to have a record of some sighting.  Plus, I have frequently taken a photo just to be able to identify some bird later.  You cannot do that either with a scope.

The male is the bird on the left in the opening images.  He is the one who initiated the contact.  You can see that he appears slightly smaller than the female which I believe is true of great blue herons.

Initially, she seems to be amenable to his suggestions - at least until she draws close to him.  She advanced to his position, not the other way around.

Is the jumping in the air part of the mating ritual or is it a change of mind?  I don't know.

I have seen a mating ritual as late as June, but at this latitude I think they breed through May nesting in large colonial rookeries.  I'm sure there is one locally, but I am not aware of the location.

Ultimately, she chased him off.  And that is why I think she may have had a headache.