Ibis and Egret

After our potty break we continued on around the Black Pond Wildlife Drive. The bathrooms are located at about the half-way point, but I would say that most of the best birding opportunities are on the first half. The second half of the drive is drier and better suited perhaps to the black bear and bobcat that live there. However, there is still water and there are birds to be found.

I had hopped out to shoot this adult Little blue heron, one of the lesser seen residents of the marsh, being far out-numbered by the egrets and tri-colored herons. But I was soon distracted by the two birds to my left.


I glanced over and noticed this White ibis probing for insects in the shallows. Following along behind was a Snowy egret.


The egret made no attempt to feed itself, merely followed the ibis as it moved back and forth through the water.




Egrets are also insect eaters, so one could assume it was just waiting for the ibis to stir something up.


Or maybe the egret, who is more of a stalker of its prey, was looking for a new hunting method.


In any case, the egret followed the ibis round and round....


We saw similar behavior at the end of our trip involving two Brown pelicans and some dolphins, but that is for a later post!