![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/snowy-egret-5337b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"snowy-egret-5337b-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nA large group of hungry and cooperative Snowy Egrets saved my morning yesterday at Farmington Bay WMA.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I stopped on the road to photograph just one egret feeding in water that was covered with a thick layer of duckweed but it wasn’t long before other egrets began flying in to join the first bird. So of course I did my best to get landing shots. I never counted them but eventually there must have been a couple of dozen egrets in front of me doing what Snowy Egrets do – feeding, posturing with their flared plumes and skirmishing with each other over hunting space.<\/p>\n Whatever they were feeding on was tiny so I never got any dramatic shots of them with fish but I still like quite a few of my photos.<\/p>\n Here we see one of the first egrets coming in to join the original bird. As they’re approaching their intended landing spot they typically hold their “golden slippers” only millimeters above the surface of the water (or in this case, floating duckweed) for a short distance before they plop down. In this shot I like the wing position, the ruffled lesser coverts on the upper wing surfaces, the excellent detail in the left wing and tail, the long shadow of the bird indicating early morning and of course those yellow feet so very close to the water without actually disturbing the surface.<\/p>\n My (almost obligatory) nit? I wish I had a little more room at the bottom of the frame.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Here’s a different perspective on another egret coming in at a much steeper angle. I like the visual dynamics of this shot with the wings, legs and feet pointing almost directly at the intended landing spot and the feet of the egret only about an inch off the duckweed.<\/p>\n I often noticed that when the birds hit the water the splash was muted by the thick layer of duckweed so there tended to be very little disturbance to the water which I found to be more than a little counterintuitive. It almost looked like they were landing in thick pea soup.<\/p>\n Immediately after dawn yesterday we had the refuge to ourselves for a good long while so we were able to spend 29 mostly undisturbed minutes with these egrets. It was a shooting frenzy while it lasted (I took over 800 photos) but eventually another vehicle came along and its unusual driving pattern apparently made the egrets nervous so they moved behind the cover of a patch of phragmites. I certainly don’t blame the driver for that, for bird photographers it comes with the territory.<\/p>\n When it was over it was really over. The transition from hearing the staccato of two shutters firing fairly continuously for half an hour to absolute quiet was an abrupt one.<\/p>\n But it was a blast while it lasted. And the icing on the cake at the end of the morning was visiting with three old friends I hadn’t seen in a while – Billy Fenimore, Joe Ford and Jason Jones. That was one of the perks of having the refuge road open to visitors again. It’s been a long “breeding season” with the gate closed.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A large group of hungry and cooperative Snowy Egrets saved my morning yesterday at Farmington Bay WMA.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/snowy-egret-5654-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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