If you're not a birding enthusiast and just happened to click here to see what "white wonders" I'm talking about, please just scroll your way through the photos here to find out. The white wonders are egrets, elegant birds that dazzle with their acrobatics, their wide wingspans and flight, and their communal nesting that rocks at this time of the year as the chicks mature and put on shows for us mere mortals.
Check out these young'uns happy to show you what I'm talking about:
These young birds are Snowy Egrets and they are growing up fast, still fighting each other in the nest for premium spots and screaming like banshees to be fed. They show off in many photos below.
Join me below the curly orange worm about to be regurgitated from an adult Snowy Egret into the grateful maws of awaiting young chicks to see more.
Egrets and herons roost together in colonies, usually near water and mudflats, but not always. To avoid predators, they sometimes form nesting communes in unlikely places they judge to be safe - and in this case, for the photos contained in this diary, that safe place happened to be a residential neighborhood with loblolly pines and magnolia trees outside an apartment complex on a fairly busy thoroughfare. The residents nearby weren't especially happy at the noise level and poop that accompanies an active egret/heron commune, but they put up with it.
Let's have a look at some of the members of the colony:
In this colony, called a "rookery" or bird nursery, are many moms, dads, juveniles and other species, including Cattle Egrets, Black-crowned Night Herons, and a lone Little Blue Heron. I'm going to save those guys for a future diary, since the Snowy Egret activity was the focus of all the action.
Let's go ahead and take a look at a beleaguered mom who has three young charges screaming and begging for her to give them something. This is the bird equivalent of whining for a Pop Tart or peanut butter sandwich or a cookie; "Please, Mom, puh-lease!"
The calm before the storm:
"I think she's coming this way."
"Here she comes!"
"Mom, I'm the BEST bird!"
"YESSSSssssss!"
"Mom, he is not the best bird! I am!"
"No, I am!"
"Are NOT!"
"Shut up! Now you've brought PeeWee into this. He looks invisible, but there he is, his stupid beak now the third one trying to get the goodness!"
"You wanna fight?! You want a piece of me, you scrawny bit of fluff?!"
"Mom, you're back! Make them stop!"
"All of you, shush. Here's your lunch!"
"I'm going off now to do other chores. I expect each of you to behave until your father gets home. Do you hear me? Now quit nagging and hanging on."
"I'll give you a few more nibbles, and then I'm off!"
"Junior, stop it now! I have things to do! Quit clinging to me!"
The photos I've shared here focused on the antics of a few of the Snowy Egrets among dozens in this rookery. The pines and magnolias were filled with so many egrets and herons, it was hard to keep track of the movements of just these few before being distracted by others. It was a feast for the eyes. If you've never had the chance to witness a rookery in action, I hope you have the chance someday.
For all you Kossacks headed to Detroit for Netroots Nation in mere days, have yourselves a blast and fly like an egret!