Great White Heron

Back in January, Tammy and I were in south Florida for some college football, but also took some time to explore a bit. As my recent posts have described, we took one day to explore some of Everglades National Park. Another day trip, however was a drive south further down into the keys. One stop that we made on that drive was at the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center (FKWBC), located in Tavernier. Their primary purpose is to provide emergency and recuperative care for injured birds.

While exploring the FKWBC grounds I snapped photos of several of the injured birds, as well as several wild birds that were just hanging about the place. It wasn't until later, however, when I got a chance to review the photos, that I realized one of the large, white wading birds was not the Great Egret that I assumed it was. After flipping through several field guides, and doing some research on the Internet, I came to the conclusion that I had gotten a picture of a white morph Great Blue Heron (also known as Great White Heron).

The first field mark that my research pointed out was the color of the legs. Great Egret has black legs and Great White Heron has pale legs. Depending on the light, however, black legs might appear to be not quite black, but they are still much darker than the Great White Heron's pale legs. Next was the bill. The Great White Heron has a heavier bill than the Great Egret. To me, the Great White Heron looked like it had a regular Great Blue Heron's bill stuck on a white bird. Finally, the Great Egret may also have plumes trailing from its back and breast, while the Great White Heron would only have plumes trailing from its head. I suspect that there are other clues to help tell these two apart which I have not listed here.

Here are my photos. The first is the Great White Heron. The second is the Great Egret.

Tabasco

After we left Lake Fausse Point State Park yesterday, we drove to Avery Island. We ate our lunch here under some spectacular Live Oaks, and then later visited a rookery where there were a good number of nesting Great Egrets. What I did not realize was that Avery Island was the home of Tabasco Sauce production, and also one of five salt domes in Louisiana. During Hurricane Rita, the storm surge and associated flooding brought water to within four inches of the Tabasco factory, despite a 10 foot levee surrounding the place. To the delight of Tabasco lovers everywhere, they are currently increasing the levee to 20 feet.

Here are pictures of the Live Oaks, a Great Egret on a nest and the Tabasco Country Store. Being the curmudgeon that I am, I did not bother going into the store.

Three Waders

This is my last post containing pictures from my recent trip to Orlando Wetlands Park. The pictures are of three different wading birds: Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron and Great Egret (top to bottom).

Great Egrets were everywhere

This year must have been a bumper crop for Great Egrets. They were everywhere. Here are a couple of pictures, each of a different flock of egrets. I wonder if there is a special word for "flock" when describing a gathering of egrets?

Foggy Morning

This picture captures the morning. You can see the fog, which rolled in quite suddenly the previous afternoon (while I was enjoying an ice cream cone...Cake Batter flavored ice cream is *awesome*). You can see one chunk of my photography gear. This stuff is so new, and I am so inexperienced with it, that I feel funny just saying "photography gear". And that vain Great Egret is in the scene, just about to fly away. He actually flew to the near bank, towards me, and posed some more.

Great Egret

I had a very cooperative Great Egret to take pictures of this morning. Even better, there was no wind, so the water was like a mirror.