Little Blue Herons always put on a big show...

With striking slate-blue feathers on its body and muted maroon-purple feathers on its head and neck, it's hard not to notice a Little Blue Heron, especially when it shakes out those feathers!

This Little Blue Heron was watching over chicks in a nearby nest. He fluffed up his feathers and shook everything out, transforming into a little "regal" heron!

...his change is so rapid, it is almost like he slips on royal clothes.

...slowly morphing back into his "average joe" look.

...what a difference!

...here's another noticeable difference. When Little Blue Herons are chicks, they are white and remain so all through their first year. Hints of what's to come are visible, though--they have a small black tip on their bills, and small bits of darker gray or blue can be found at the tips of their wing feathers (but it's hardly noticeable).

Mother Nature always has a reason for her anomalies, and white morph immature Little Blue Herons are no exception. Turns out Snowy Egrets don't mind when baby Little Blue Herons hang out with them and fish. Maybe because the young birds are white, the Snowy Egrets ignore them, which is good for the young Little Blue Herons. For some reason, immature Little Blue Herons who hunt with Snowy Egrets catch more food! I found no definitive answer, but the most common reasoning was the Snowy Egrets hunt differently than Little Blue Herons and stir up more fish, making it easier for the Little Blues to catch dinner. Since the Little Blue Herons remain white for a year, they get a head start by fishing with Snowy Egrets. Because of that, you'll often find Little Blue Herons and Snow Egrets nesting together in rookeries...

A Snowy Egret nest is tucked into the Little Blue Heron section of the Ibis Pond rookery on Pinckney Island in South Carolina. Every year I've found Little Blues and Snowy Egrets nesting together at the Ibis Pond rookery.

For another post showing a Little Blue Heron in his "regal-ware," click here.

(Photographed on 6/6/2011 at Ibis Pond on Pinckney Island, SC near Hilton Head.)

For more information about immature Little Blue Herons and their white color morph, click here for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's "All About Birds" site.

A Snowy Egret preening...and we raised $1800.00 for the Oxbow!

Yeah! $1800.00 is nothing to sneeze at (although I'm sneezing now because Ich habe mich stark erkältet--which my nieces in Deutschland know means I've caught a very bad cold...uugh! I shouldn't complain, though, because I haven't been sick since October a year ago when I had The Swine, so that's pretty good). The fundraiser was a lot of fun, but it unnerved me a bit because I was worried none of the prints or cards would sell and we'd make no money! I think cortisol production ("the stress hormone") lowers your immune system, so I'm blaming this cold on my weak ego. I shouldn't have worried. Plenty sold, and we made money. Mary and Patrick of the Mason Wild Bird Center ran the fundraiser Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, which really helped. Thank you to EVERYONE who bought a print, or a pack of notecards, or some raffle tickets!! In addition to raising money, we raised awareness of the Oxbow, and a lot more people in our area now know about it and hopefully will be able to get out and see it. (Click here if you want to learn more about the Oxbow wetlands near Cincinnati.)

...and now on to the star of this post...a beautiful preening Snowy Egret from the Pinckney Island NWR (and once again, Snowy is appropriate, because snow is on the way. We may get a decent accumulation this weekend, which I'm looking forward to because it always makes the chickadees look even sweeter.)

...beauteous is the only word that fits.

...and meticulous, that word would fit too (meticulous is the only kind of preening a beauteous Snowy Egret knows).

...thank goodness he has long legs to reach that head!

...that's much better.

The Dracula shot. I always love them. I vant to suck your blood...

...and that's what a well-groomed Snowy looks like!

I took these photos on 6-15-2010. It was about 100 degrees F that day...so different from the weather today here in Cincy. Cough, cough...

p.s. Don't forget about the "Great Penguin Rescue" Giveaway! Click here for details and a review of the book.

Snowy Egrets...and the Oxbow Fundraiser

...as I'm writing this post, big, white, fluffy snowflakes are falling to the ground--perfect for a "Snowy" Egret post! It's about 1:15 a.m now....quiet and still...and so pretty.

I wish I could say I photographed these beautiful Snowy Egrets in Cincinnati, but I didn't (I photographed them at the Pinckney Island NWR in Hilton Head back in June)....but, I could have if I were at the Oxbow on May 18 and August 14 of this year because Snowy Egrets were there too. I know...Snowy Egrets in Cincinnati? They are pretty rare around here, but we can still find them every now and then at the Oxbow. I just wanted to remind everyone about the Oxbow fundraiser going on today at the Mason Wild Bird Center. Door prizes...free goodie bags to the first 100 customers...yummy holiday snacks...a raffle with over $1000.00 of prizes (like a Charlie Harper lithograph....really nice binoculars....and much more including prints of several of my bird paintings). You can also buy packs of my art notecards and prints of my bird paintings with 100% of the cost going to the Oxbow. The owners, Mary and Mike, are going to match dollar for dollar all funds raised. Wow!

I'm a Snowy Egret, and I don't hang out much in Cincinnati, but when I do...you can find me at the Oxbow!

The Oxbow is an important fall and spring migratory staging area. Resting and refueling at the Oxbow wetlands helps thousands of birds make it to their southern wintering grounds in the autumn and their northern nesting areas in the spring.

We are so lucky a group of concerned citizens got together in the early 80s and pooled their money to save the wetlands. Because of them, this important migratory staging area remains...and our birds are safe for a little longer.

Help keep my habitat safe! Stop by the Mason Wild Bird Center today for their four-year anniversary celebration and the Oxbow fundraiser!

Click here for details on the Oxbow fundraiser at the Mason Wild Bird Center.

Click here if you want to join and support the Oxbow (memberships start at just $15.00).

Painting #71, Snowy Egret with Plumes Flying

Painting 71, Snowy Egret with Plumes Flying

(Quick watercolor sketch, 9x12, Arches Rough 100% Cotton 140 lb paper)

This is one of those milestone paintings because I sketched it and painted it in public--with a lot of people around. Normally I paint by myself, but I knew I was going to have an hour's wait while my son was at a tennis clinic, so after reading Laure Ferlita's post today on all of her travel watercolor palettes, I decided it was time to haul my paints and paper with me and paint. I am a sloppy sketcher, and when I prepare for a watercolor, I normally tone down my heavy-handed sketching, but I didn't have time for that, so I just let my heavy hand go free. The pencil marks show through the paint, but that's okay. It was dark there, and I couldn't see up close very well because I didn't have my little magnifying glasses (uugh...getting older is murder on the eyes. I can't see anything up close anymore). As a result, this little egret's eyes suffered a bit and look outlined. I was going to fix it when I got home but decided to leave it because each painting in the challenge is a learning experience. I'm going to take my paints with me now when I know I'm going to have a long wait so I'll be able to keep practicing painting on the fly...in front of people!

When I paint with acrylics I don't lay a sketch down at all. I just grab the paintbrush and start painting, but watercolors aren't that forgiving so a sketch is necessary! I might try painting this guy in acrylic and see what happens. I took the photo I used as a reference for this painting when I was in Florida this spring (it's posted here). The Snowy Egret was in his breeding plumage and the wind had whipped those beautiful plumes on his head in the air. He had just caught the little silvery fish, and I was lucky enough to snap the photo just in time.

Snowy Egret feeding nestlings...

Birding Hilton Head Island, SC and Pinckney Island at the Ibis Pond Rookery

...continued from the Tricolored Heron takes a walk post.

Even though I try, I can't begin to describe the energy and wonder of the Ibis Pond rookery at the height of the nesting season. There are so many birds and so much action it's hard to decide where to point the camera. Noise is varied and nonstop, sometimes slipping into a state that can only be described as a cacophony, and when you mix in the pungent aroma of regurgitated fish guts spiking here and there as you walk around the mote...with the never ending beauty and variety of birds at every glance, it can actually start to feel like an assault on the senses (but it's a good assault that keeps you coming back for more)!

As the Tricolored Herons from an earlier post were learning to fly in the trees in front of me, to the left, in the trees growing along the mote (again, on our side!), several parents in a mini colony of Little Blue Herons and Snowy Egrets were busy feeding their young while others sat patiently on eggs. Here a Snowy Egret tends to nestlings.

...you can see how the baby's gular pouch has expanded to hold the food.

...and I think we have a glimpse of regurgitated fish guts here--sort of greenish grey. Yum. Just what the baby needs to get big and strong!

...the sun did a beautiful job highlighting the baby's gular pouch. Kind of cool...it was the first time I had ever seen the sun shine through the tiny pouch.

It looks like baby#2 has given up, but he's just resting. He was fed first!

These photos are from June 7, 2010. The rookery was not as far along as the same week last year, but there seemed to be more herons and egrets. It was strange that they had crossed over the mote and were nesting on our side. Not many people were visiting the rookery while I was there. It was hot...really hot...like 100 degrees F hot, so that might have kept people away, but those that did visit were respectful of the nesting birds and kept back. That was good to see. The rookery wasn't quite as pungent or noisy this year either, but I assume a week or so after I left, the noise increased, and as more and more babies hatched out, so too the wonderful smells!

To see cool birds from all over the world, visit Bird Photography Weekly.

Those beautiful Snowy Egrets...

Birding Longboat Key, Florida

...continued from the thieving gull post.

A filmy flash of white feathers settled by the side of the road as I was driving on Longboat Key. The movement was so graceful and elegant I had to pull over to see what had landed there. Picking my way carefully down a sandy little path bordered by brush, rocks and stunted trees, I was happy to find a dainty little Snowy Egret tucked away in a shady little cove, already working on the task at hand--fishing. The beautiful bird had chosen the darkest part of the cove to fish in, and his white feathers almost seemed to glow against the deep greens in the background. I just hunkered down and was quiet, watching him as he moved in and out of the shadows eyeing the little silver fish glimmering just beneath the surface of the water.

...only a Snowy Egret can make catching a fish look sexy.

The deep shadows cast from the trees on the wooded embankment softened the scene and made this beautiful bird even more gorgeous.

...slipping through the water, Snowy would lift one slender leg after another, showing off those lovely golden slippers.

...his fluffy plumes being tossed around in the breeze were beautiful. It's easy to see how Snowy Egret populations were decimated during the great millinery feather trade of the mid 1850s and early 1900s. Thank goodness women like Florence Merriam Bailey worked to curb this millinery fashion style, saving our Snowy Egrets from extinction.

...as I climbed back up the sandy little hill, Snowy was still fishing, walking the shallows patient and vigilant.

Snowy Egrets (and an alligator) at Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge (Near Hilton Head, SC)

Birding on Hilton Head Island and Pinckney Island NWR...continued from Tuesday's post on Little Blue Heron chicks.
Living right next door to our lovely Little Blue Heron family was a Snowy Egret family. The male Snowy Egret was climbing carefully along a limb until he found the perfect perch and slowly wrapped his yellow-slippered feet around the branch. Looking around, he displayed and fluffed his gorgeous snowy feathers. 






About three branches over in the crook of the tree, his mate was seated on her nest. Every now and then she would stand up and stretch, revealing a clutch of three white eggs.




The male Snowy Egret stayed where he was, studying the bright green water below. I assumed he was looking for fish, but maybe he was looking at something else. Only six feet away and four feet down, a bumpy brown log with unblinking eyes sat waiting.