Great Egret - Ardea alba

 Download Full Resolution (1000x1000) 148KB 7,732

Great Egret - Ardea alba

[Public Domain] 21 Mar 2004 Dylan O'Donnell
CATEGORY : Species
7,733 others viewed this post.

Only yesterday I uploaded a photo of this same species in its classic natural pose with the neck curved into an ‘s’, looking into the water for fish. There is something about Egrets I just love to look at. The plumage and the graceful long neck are remarkable and the milk white feathers make them look rather angelic.

I had a friend take me out to a “hot spot” for water birds yesterday and got some good shots, but returned today by myself to take my time and really stalk these birds, pun intended. This time I crawled through the scrub to sneak up on them and get much closer. As I got closer and closer to the heart of the activity I saw this guy up a tree looking around cautiously.

Its a pity that branch obscures the view of the legs and bisects the photo somewhat, but showing the stag is a good honest representation of the habitat, and the clarity of the image turned out so much better than the other that I decided to include this as an alternative photo for the Intermediate Egret.

I was mesmerised by this species today as I watched about twenty individuals circling the river for fish. Before they dive, they do a “double take” that looks like a half spin and then then shoot downwards and stop at the last minute with a big swoop of both wings. Then, gracefully they dip their beak in and pull out a fish. This was so regular that the “double take” became the cue for me to focus and follow and I turned out a few good photos of the egrets complete with fresh fish!

NOTE : The bird is actually a Great Egret and not Intermediate as first thought. Notes by Matthew Herring : “The egret photo is definitely not an Intermediate, rather a Great Egret. The egrets can be tricky and it’s a good challenge to ID them. Greats are by far the most common in our area. We also get a few Intermediate Egrets, an occasional Little Egret and Cattle Egrets are common in some places, usually out in paddocks, as opposed to wetlands. The only likely

 Download Full Resolution (1000x1000) 148KB