Egret Fishing

An egret fishing

Photograph: Egret Elegance

I like the way the egret is studying itself intently, very nearly touching and making a perfect circle.

I've always had trouble telling the snowy egret and the great egret apart when they're not near one another for size comparison, and especially when the snowy egrets aren't in their breeding plumage, but someone recently clued me in: the Great White Egret has a yellow beak and black feet; the snowy has a black beak and yellow feet. How simple!

This was taken in Huntington Beach Central Park in Talbert Lake which has, bless it, lasted all year long this year. If we get any decent rain this winter, we may have it for two years running, to the benefit of frogs, turtles, waterfowl, and photographers.

Egret

More Bolsa Chica Photos

Egrets find the fence a  convenient resting place. The wall there helpfully funnels the fish right to them.

If you look carefully, you'll see a heron resting in those bushes.

A green heron getting ready to fish.

Shipley Nature Center

I finally went today after a long time away. Blackbird Pond had water, so I thought I'd hunt for turtles. The person I talked to in the Center said there should be turtles there--that they liked to rest on "the log" in "the middle" of the water. As you can see, there are more than a few logs there.

I didn't find any, but I did see hummingbirds, an egret, a heron (can you see it?), lizards, oddly shaped trees, and some grumpy ducks.

Technically, the ducks were not at the nature center, they were further out in the park proper, out in front of Breakfast in the Park. They like to rest on the warm walkway there where it's warm. They'll get out of the way when approached, muttering all the while.

I wonder what they'll do when Breakfast in the Park isn't there to be a gathering place and source of bread?

Look closely. There is more there than mud.