This was taken from a large marsh dike that’s runs alongside another large dike. A canal runs between them, for some reason years ago two dikes made sense.
The water was low and we could see a good sized group of Egrets and Spoonbill all around a wooden trunk. There’s no way to really hide on the dikes. Grass can be 10 feet tall, but there are gaps. The shot below was from one of the openings.
At first I didn’t notice that long tail right in the middle of the lower group. The Alligator was around 9 feet long, just hanging out with birds
As expected we couldn’t walk past the group without them taking off.
In the image below you can see both sides of the wooden trunk, the gates upright. That’s how the trunk system works. Gates are on both sides of the dike, water flows through the wooden ‘pipe’ running through the dike itself. There are thousands of these trunks scattered across the Lowcountry ACE Basin controlling water levels through over the 350,000 acres here.
Bear Island, South Carolina.
Wow, that’s quite a gathering of Snowy Egrets. I don’t think I’ve come across a group that large outside of a rookery. No wonder the gator is hanging about!
Sad to say that’s a fraction of what we would find just 5-6 years ago. Hundreds of misc birds would be a conservative estimate 😏
Interesting that the Snowies all flew away, while the Spoonies apparently stayed. That gator tail was a surprise!
The Spoonies went in the opposite direction LOL. I only realized it after this shot, only caught a few pink butts lol. Almost included one for laughs.
Egrets are beautiful birds.
Absolutely 😊. When they dance with full bridal feathers, like the Audubon logo it’s amazing. As an aside, many of the Egret shots here are taken in my local swamp down the road. John J Audubon visited and worked there with his bird studies, and we have a Great Egret that visits my front steps looking for Anole. 😆 it’s not like I live on a pond or golf course, but he likes my bushes LOL. So yeah, I like Egrets