It may not be earth-shattering news but it was grand elation for me this morning (Sept. 4, 2024) to sight a great big white bird in the sky as I was walking back in from my morning excursion out in the field. I grabbed my binoculars to get a closer spotting, and was confident it was a Great Egret and not a Great Blue Heron, the latter being spotted several times recently. I knew I had not seen a Great Egret at all, not one single time, in all of last year (2023) nor yet through the spring or summer of this year. I checked my archives and confirmed that the last photograph taken of a Great Egret was back in July 2022.
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I followed the Egret in flight and saw it land several hundred yards off, but near a bunch of cattle. I believe it was going to take advantage of any potential prey the cattle might just churn up with their ambling about in the grasses. I did see the Egret go head down into the turf a couple of times but couldn’t tell if it captured anything. At any rate I did some hasty ambling myself to get myself farther back along the track to get closer to the Egret, hoping to close in by at least a hundred yards or so. By checking on Google Earth I estimate my shots were taken from about two hundred yards between me and the bird. Yay for my 3000mm zoom Nikon P1000 camera, and the fact that I already had my tripod at the ready. And it was all good timing because I ended up with all of three minutes of shooting time before the bird flew. Here are my selected frames:
First photo from about three hundred yards distance. 8:01 a.m.
After getting closer, these frames begin at 8:03 a.m. and finish at 8:06 a.m. That’s all the window the bird allowed me.
(Title photo repeat)
Cropped for bokeh effect.
Gone in flight. I’m trying to track it with my camera still mounted on the tripod. Did the best I could. The P1000 just isn’t grand for BIF nohow.
So, a very satisfying morning out with the culmination of the Great Egret filling my emotions with pride and happiness. Some mornings, ya know, that just happens. Sure is good when it does.
Other feathered denizens out this morning:
Red-tailed Hawk. Right off the bat as I started my walk. Not much more than twenty yards from where I was standing and directly along the edge of the walking path on the barbed wire fencing post that separates the path from the immediately adjacent cattle fields.
It flew off the post because I was going to walk directly in front of it if it stayed where it was. Hee hee. Across the road is the recently constructed solar electricity array that serves the high school. A fine vantage point. See it right there, up on the near corner?
Zoomed in
Red-shouldered Hawk. Note it has a tidbit in its beak.
It had a prey item but I wasn’t able to see exactly what it was.
Downy Woodpecker on Woolly Mullein
Here’s a clunky video of the hawks and the woodpecker. The hawks launched within a few seconds of my starting the videos, but they do what they want, not usually what I want. 😱🤪 I don’t know what the Downy was finding, but whatever was there in the Mullein sure attracted the bird.
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OK, over to you. What’s been happening in your world, nature-wise? Let us know in the comments and if you have any photos please share them if you will, along with your location. Thanks!
