gwenz wildlife weblog » egretta garzetta

Little egrets | BPW #48

gwendolen — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 07:02:18 +0000

The bottom of the sea

We camped at the Dunes of St Marguerite, an area between the L’Aber Benoit and l’Aber Wrac’h in Finistère. Finistère or Penn-ar-Bed in Breton is a département of France, located in Brittany (Breizh in Breton and Bretagne in French). Brittany has the highest tides in Europe. The sea advances and retreats twice a day. When the moon is above the sea, it attracts the water towards it, the sea level rises and the tide comes in. Six hours later, the moon is no longer above the sea and the tide goes out.

At low tide the little egrets would come to forage, either on the shore like the Little Fisherman, or in the shallow pools as you can see here. They would stay for hours, feeding on little fish and crustaceans.

I managed to get a little closer and take a few photo’s with my 100 – 400 lens. It was blowing quite hard though and I was having trouble keeping it still, as you can see here. (The tripod was back at the tent, where it lay gathering dust – as always)

This one turned out nice and sharp. Dinner for two.

Feathers ruffled in the wind.

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Little fisherman

gwendolen — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:06:04 +0000

Little Egret

This little egret spent hours fishing in the surf. I’m sorting through my holiday photos at the moment – and unpacking and washing. More photos and stories this weekend.

Aigrette garzette

gwendolen — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:39:01 +0000

Little egret (Egretta garzetta)

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Quick post from Brittany: Last night’s storm blew itself out and the sun came out this morning, so at low tide we went for a walk on the beach of the Dunes de Sainte Marguerite. Apart from the gulls we saw quite a few little egrets. I’ll go back with the big lens tomorrow or so, to get a couple of close ups.