I knew there were nesting here, I just could not find them.
We don’t have many Cattle Egrets. They prefer open spaces, like fields or prairies. It’s been years since I had an opportunity with them.
When I took this shot it was a quick snap, and I just assumed he was a Snowy. I didn’t give it any thought until this morning digging through my images from a day at Cypress Wetlands.
We have large flocks of them here in the Houston area, and all along the Texas Gulf Coast. Their name, Cattle Egret, is well-earned, as they are often seen around the feet of cattle out in low-lying pasture. The cows kick up bugs and critters, and the egrets are happy.
I love their mating colors. The only large rookery of them I have seen was deep inside the Okefenokee swamp. A guide we had knew of one that could only be reached by ‘poling’ a small flat boat’ through cuts in the reeds. He had only been out there a few years before. We found hundreds… was a great find.