Fun Photographing Reddish Egrets In Florida

Reddish Egret foraging near mangroves – Nikon D200, handheld. f7.1, 1/640, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 220mm, natural light, not baited

I’m trying to finally finish up moving my photo galleries from the old program I used to have them on my web site and the only birds I have left now are Reddish Egrets. I’ve finished processing the images and I thought that today I would share a few.

All of these photos were taken at Fort De Soto County Park in Pinellas County, Florida.

I remember well the day I photographed this dark morph Reddish Egret foraging near some mangroves because the wind coming in off of the Gulf of Mexico kept me cool and the egret was very active in the waves.

White morph Reddish Egret in flight over the Gulf of Mexico – Nikon D200, handheld. f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 250, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 135mm, natural light, not baited

White morph Reddish Egrets are far less common than dark morphs are in Florida so whenever I had a chance to take images of them I jumped at the chance.

I’d photographed this white morph for quite some time before it lifted off and flew away with a pastel blue sky behind it.

Reddish Egret in flight with nesting materials – Nikon D200, handheld. f6.3, 1/2000, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light, not baited

Reddish Egrets nested near Fort De Soto County Park’s north beach and though I never found their nests I did get to see them gathering nesting materials and flying off with them. I liked how this Reddish Egret flew past me over the sandy beach in front of the dunes and how its shadow was on the sand.

Calling white morph Reddish Egret in breeding plumage – Nikon D200, handheld. f6.3, 1/1250, ISO 250, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 220mm, natural light, not baited

There were times the Reddish Egrets paid little attention to me as they foraged, preened and dances around in the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico. This white morph was calling out when I photographed it because another wading bird had landed nearby.

Dark morph Reddish Egret with prey in a calm lagoon – Nikon D200, handheld. f6.3, 1/750, ISO 250, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 240mm, natural light, not baited

Photographing the Reddish Egrets in the calm waters of the lagoons at Fort De Soto’s north beach was a joy to me. I could get down low in the water and the birds would dance around me while they chased prey and sometimes I’d get lucky when they caught fish and get images of them before they swallowed the prey.

Dark morph Reddish Egret showing Wing-Flicking feeding behavior – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 200, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 155mm, natural light, not baited

And through my view finder I would get to watch the Reddish Egrets dance, twirl and give chase to their prey.

White morph Reddish Egret and Canopy-Feeding pose – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1/1250, ISO 160, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 180mm, natural light, not baited

Or use the Canopy-feeding technique, also called the umbrella pose, where they would use their wings to create a shadow over the water. Small fish would seek out the shade and the egrets would gobble them up.

Dark morph Reddish Egret walking in front of sand dunes – Nikon D200, handheld. f6.3, 1/640, +0.3 EV, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light, not baited

It wasn’t unusual for me to see Reddish Egrets walk from the lagoons to the Gulf of Mexico across the sandy beach. Sometimes I was even able to photograph them with the dunes behind them.

Dark morph Reddish Egret portrait – Nikon D200, handheld. f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light, not baited

While I was never able to take a portrait of the white morph Reddish Egrets I did have the opportunity to do so with a dark morph Reddish Egret one morning.

I had so much fun photographing Reddish Egrets when I lived in Florida and could see them nearly every time I went to Fort De Soto County Park’s north beach. It was a joy!

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my Reddish Egret photos plus facts and information about this species.