I did not see this Great Egret fly in, but I assume it just did based on the wing flapping and dancing.
This was a rather long distance but lately I have been paying more attention to the surrounding area of a shot that the actual subject. Probably just mixing things up a bit.
I took this shot across a marsh, the photograph itself taken a little wide. I wanted to catch the entire scene, and any interaction that might happen between these two.
The Heron walked past the Egret and postured in the ‘ready for anything’ stance.
An adult Great Egret will choose to keep away from the larger Heron, this one was no exception.
I think the Heron was considering chasing the Egret, but since the bird didn’t move he thought better of it and continued on.
Funny, but after the Great Blue walked by I thought the Egret was going to sneak up on him. He certainly looked to be considering it.
Taken near the Ashley River outside Charleston, South Carolina.
I expected to see the bending knee, a sign of a quick take off.
He was clearly watching to see what I would do, but he never did fly, just walked by.
An Egret spends half of the day preening their feathers.
Here the bird gave a pretty good show. Neither of us had anything better to do at the time anyway.
An Egret perched at the top of an old dead tree.
This must be a good spot, it is not the first that has landed here.
This marsh was all thick Pluff mud.
And yet this Egret, all white, made an elegant landing.
Even managed to stay clean.
He wasn’t happy about the wind messing up his feathers, but he still looked good.
A Great Egret, a graceful landing, and just the right light.
While out near old rice fields we came upon a Great Egret as he caught a decent sized siren. (additional images at PassingByPhoto).
I heard the Egret before seeing him due to some pretty vigorous splashing.
At first I saw nothing, then the bird came out from the reeds right below my spot on a dike.
A Siren looks like an eel but is actually a large aquatic salamander. Some can grow to 3 feet ( 1 meter). They will fight back, have a toxic secretion, in general not an easy meal. I have seen larger Siren fight Great Blues for hours.
Below the Egret had to wait on the fighting Siren.
Finally the bird quickly flew off with his prey. A larger Heron was stalking both of them. The Heron would steal this given the chance.
