The Last Thing a Mud Goby Sees...

Snowy Egret, Egretta thula, San Elijo Preserve. This is the last thing a mud goby ever sees in his sad, mud skipping, invert eating existence. The egrets wade in the shallow water, waving their feet in little semi-circles above the mud. The moment one of those little gobies so much as twitches, bam. Bird food. This egret would catch the gobies in the tip of its beak and then toss them up like little peanuts, catching them in its gullet (a photo for another post).

Snowy Egret with Blenny

Snowy Egret, Egretta thula, with what appears to be a small green blenny that it snapped out of the seaweed along the tidal zone. These beautiful little birds appear to be quite smart and somewhat opportunistic. This one was roiling the sand with his feet to scare up small fish and shrimp. I've seen others going through the cast off sand that fishermann scatter when digging for worms. Still another was attempting to steal fish out of a school being driven in front of herding mergansers. Others hunt for grasshoppers in newly mown grass. I even saw one particularly aggressive bird carrying off another bird's chick.

Snowy Egret Contemplating Himself

Snowy egret, Egretta thula, contemplating himself in the waters of the Mission River.

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret, Egretta thula, hunting in the shallows of Tijuana Slough. These very adaptable birds are found from the Northern United States clear down to Argentina. I've seen them eat a wide variety of foods including fish, shellfish, and crabs as well as the occasional insect, lizard or small mammal.

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret, Egretta thula, Mission River Preserve, San Diego, California. We went to the preserve to see if the ducks had made it this far South yet. They had not. There was not a duck to be seen anywhere. There were, however, lots of terns, egrets, herons and an early flock of avocets.

Who's Fishing in All that Eel Grass?

Snowy Egret, Egretta thula, in flight over the Mission River. This little egret was flying by on Sunday as I walked along the Mission River. These are much smaller than the great egrets, only reaching about 20-27 inches in height and are identifiable by their black beak, yellow feet and yellow loral spot just before the eye.

Snow in San Diego?

Snowy Egret, Egretta thula. These little birds will walk in the shallows, using one foot to shake the reeds, keeping a beady eye out for any fish or critters that would swim out into the open. It seems like some are right footed and some are left footed but I didn't watch any given bird long enough to be certain that they never shifted the foot that they used as the "bush-whacker." I snapped this at Sunset, hence, the deep water hues and sunset tones.