A Great Egret with breeding plumage looks out over the swamp at the end of the day.
Taken March 10th, the tree is starting to show some buds.
Great Egret
Tag Archives: Great Egret
Great Egret: Reflection Only
Images with reflections are some of my favorites to capture. In this case I couldn’t get the bird and his reflection in the image as he was too high up in the tree. So just the reflection will have to do.
This was taken at the end of February before the trees started to leaf out.
Overshot The Nest
This Great Egret was busy bringing sticks to the nest.
It was quite breezy and on this landing he overshot the nest.
Lean into it and move your neighbor off at the same time!
The female on the nest did not get up to receive the new nesting materials, perhaps because she was laying on eggs. The nest is skimpy looking and could use some more support before the chicks are moving about.
How Do You Choose?
Sometimes the best nesting material is the hardest to procure.
Great Egret Dance and Build
This Great Egret wasn’t having much luck attracting a mate with his beautiful dancing but that didn’t stop him from working on a nest.
He had a good location in the tree and I suspect did not want to give it up to go searching for building materials. With a mate selected one would stay on the nest site to keep intruders away.
Instead he grabbed pieces from the limbs around him, continuing to display those gorgeous tail feathers.
Taken 3/13/2019
GBH: Nest Duty
This Great Blue Heron was snoozing on the nest when I came along. I was happy to see that the tree is showing some life with some green needles appearing.
At one point the heron got up, stretched and ruffled himself.
When he settled back down he took a long time adjusting from side to side making me think the eggs might have hatched.
The Great Blue was keenly aware of the Great Egret encroaching on his territory. This tree, like past years, has several Great Egret nests and some of the Great Egrets aren’t paired up yet and are searching for nesting spots.
Great Egret Mating Dance
The Great Egrets perform an elaborate mating dance. Yesterday I watched this one over several hours in this tree. The other Great Egrets didn’t seem to be impressed.
Great Egrets Nesting
A Great Egret pair were proudly showing off their building materials as they worked on making their nest while another Great Egret laid on her nest behind them.
Great Egret Returns with Stick
With a gracefully balanced stick a Great Egret flies to the nest he is building with his mate.
Wings out, feet ready for touch down, he glides into the tree.
Unfortunately for me, the nest is on the far side of the tree, but with no leaves out yet there is a view of the welcome home squawk.
Somehow these big birds manage to maneuver to a landing and not get tangled up with their building materials.
2/28/2019
Great Egret Flyby, B&W
A Great Egret is headed into the tree line to gather nest material.
