Pine trees and egrets, what a mix. You don't see the two together a whole lot, but this Great Egret was proud as a peacock up in his perch. The flexibility in these guys' necks never fails to amaze me.
Birds were somewhat scarce (although scarce for Forsythe means there's still plenty around.) But maybe two miles down the dikes, we found a huge group of several types of birds in what appeared to be a feeding frenzy. This is the best shot I could get of it, and it's missing maybe half the birds that were there.
There were: Double-crested Cormorants, Great and Snowy Egrets, plenty of Laughing and other Gulls, and about 30 Glossy Ibis.
Here's a cormorant close-up, sixteen of them in this shot alone. It must have been a good day for birds in groups, because about three quarters of the way around the wildlife drive, we came upon this small tree covered in Great and Snowy Egrets.
This is really just about a third of the tree, there were many more birds hanging out in it. Funny, because we've been going to this refuge for years now, in all seasons, and this is the first time I've really seen any kind of heron hanging out there.
Lastly, a Snowy Egret we found making use of a piling and giving us a very good demonstration of the leg and feet colors that are so distinctively identifiable. Adults usually have a strong break between the yellow of the feet and the black of the legs, but this one doesn't, so I'm thinking it's a juvenile bird, hatched just this spring.
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