Today’s photos are of a single animal doing an animal behavior, and were taken by reader Paul Peed. His captions are indented; the video at bottom is not his but was suggested by him.
The weather has been terrible in Central Florida for wildlife photography. Cloudy, hot, humid and rainy. The light was very poor for this series of images.
The most exciting and entertaining of the Heron species to watch and photograph is the hyperactive Reddish Egret: Egretta rufescens. This guy was displaying his annoyance with a number of Wood Storks at Sebastian Inlet in east central Florida.
These guys are exceedingly active stalkers of fish in shallow salt water and coastal marshes of the Caribbean islands and Florida.
A Reddish Egret will dash through the shallow water with its body contorted at an extreme angle then stop suddenly and throw up its wings to create a sunshade on the water. It will then strike straight down invariably grabbing a small fish or crab.
The Reddish dining on crab carapace. It will not pass on free protein.
There is a white morph variety of this species but I have yet to capture a White morph Reddish Egret in action.
Paul suggested I embed this video of the Reddish Egret Dance. It discusses the color morphs and, especially, shows how efficient individuals of this species are as hunters.
Very nice shots.
Wonderful shots!
Lovely photo’s. Thanks for submitting them.
I assume that when you say “indented” you mean “italicized”. Carry on! MG
Beautiful bird. Well photographed. Thanks for submitting. I learned some true facts!
lovely photos of such a beautiful bird.
Thanks for sharing!