Picture of the week

Snowy egret catch

A Snowy Egret fishing at Mather Lake. It has caught what appears to be a small catfish. I watched it for about 5 minutes with my 500mm + 1.4x teleconverter while it was trying to choke this fish down. But the catfish was refusing to cooperate.  Based on my own experiences with these fish, they can be extremely hardy with spines on the sides of their body as a defense to prevent this sort of thing. Eventually the egret flew off with the fish to deal with it somewhere else.

As you may note from its feathers, this egret is in its breeding plumage.  Currently at this time many birds are more colorful while trying to find a mate and establish a nest for the spring.

All content and images are property of Stephen Fischer Photography, copyright 2013.  Last updated: 2/24/2013   ()