Great Egret, Chincoteague NWR

Today we'll wrap up this series of bird images from Chincoteague NWR with a few Great Egret images.  The images show here as well as the ones from the two previous post were all taken with yards of each other along a small roadside tidal creek.  While one may mistakenly believe that to capture such images one would need to be hidden away deep in undisturbed territory the fact is that automobiles, bikers, and pedestrians were passing by only yards away. 

 

I hope you all have enjoyed my birds of Chincoteague NWR and hope to visit there again very soon.

Great Egret: Assateague Island

 Great Egrets were the most frequently sighted bird species during our visit to Chincoteage and Assateague.   Being white they were easily see stalking about the salt marshes whereas most other species could easily disappear in the dense vegetation.

The slow deliberate movements of a hunting egret makes them an easy target for the photographer although proper exposure can be problematic.  When shooting white subjects it is very easy to over expose loosing feather detail.

The best egret shot of the trip occurred when we spotted a bird perched on a pine blow-down.  The warm early morning sun illuminating the bird while the background remained in deep shadow made a perfect "natural studio".

Beautiful White Death Stalks the Marshes

Silent as a ghost, a Great Egret stalks the marsh

And captures its prey with a quick strike

To us the great egret is a creature of beauty and grace; for its prey it is their worst nightmare came true.

The above images were captured at the Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands at Viera