Our heat dome is finally gone!
Yesterday morning as I was approaching Bear River MBR just before sunrise it was only 51° F., so for the first time in months I actually turned my pickup’s heater on. As I type this at 4 AM the next day it’s 54° at my home here in Murray and the projected high for today is 85°, as opposed to the 100 – 107° temps we’ve been having for the last several weeks.
But there’s a downside. Without the heat dome to protect us…
the smoke from Idaho’s wildfires has moved in. With a vengeance.
This is what sunrise looked like at 7:22 AM yesterday morning as the sun rose over the Wasatch Mountains just north of Brigham City. The smoke turned the eastern sky a fiery red and I was dealing with the effects of the smoke all morning. It interfered with my camera’s focusing, so I got a lot of soft shots. It caused a color shift in some of my photos, especially in the earliest part of the morning, and it also made getting proper exposure very difficult.
But I still got some documentary shots of interesting Snowy Egret behavior that were ‘sharp enough’.
1/6400, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
When Snowy Egrets are feeding in small groups, and one gets a little too close to another, you can almost count on them having disagreements. Here the egret on the right was trying to look as large and threatening as possible by raising its wings and stretching its body vertically as high as it could.
1/6400, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
But when its opponent demonstrated that it might be the larger of the two birds by stretching its body even taller, the bird on the right backed down and vamoosed. In this instance no actual fight broke out.
But sometimes these altercations get serious.
1/8000, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
When this fight broke out, by the time I could get focus locked on them one egret had already knocked its opponent off its feet and pinned that bird down in the water.
1/8000, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
I expected the ‘losing’ bird to vigorously defend itself and at first I thought it was, by poking and biting the aggressor with its sharp beak. But when I looked at my many photos of them more carefully it became apparent that the defeated egret was only…
1/8000, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
looking up at its tormentor, as if it was begging for mercy.
1/6400, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in
Like gladiators in the ancient Roman Coliseum, I almost expected the victorious bird to look at me for a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” to determine the fate of the loser. But of course that never happened. Eventually the dominant egret released its victim and they both flew off together as if they’d been friends for life.
But the winner didn’t have mercy quickly. That bird held the other one down with its foot for so long I was able to get 63 photos of the behavior. And I wasn’t shooting continuously.
Arthur C. Clarke once said “Human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal.” This egret was lucky.
Ron
Nice series, I wonder if the underdog was a juvie?
Could be. I dunno.
When I say stay down, I mean it!
What a great behavioral series, professor.
Thanks, Arwen.
I am all too familiar with the effect of fires on the air. I do hope that you have better (but still cool) air today.
Another amazing series. And yes, I am with rather a lot of you on the stain front. If I was held down in that water it would show.
Thanks Ron. I do love being able to start my day in awe, in wonder – and learning.
EC, today our air isn’t much, if at all, better but the cool temps remain, thankfully. I’m glad you enjoyed the post.
At first I thought you were going to describe a mating dance. But then it turned dark. Quite the plot twist. I shouldn’t have been surprised; wrong time of year for mating rituals.
The atmosphere here is turning hazy as well; in our case it’s the fires from eastern Washington, BC, and who knows where else
Doesn’t seem to matter what color shirt I wear anymore, stains happen.
Lyle, some of our smoke might be from northern CA but I’ve heard that most if it is from ID.
Nice series to well document this behavior. Most photos show a calm, peaceful bird and you would never guess what they are capable of towards each other. Of the egret squabbles I’ve seen, they have all turned out like this one with both birds being fine in the end. But it’s hard to believe that’s going to be the outcome while the fight is going on. They sometimes remind me of coots in their aggressiveness. It can seem contrary to our manufactured perception of them. But nature seldom follows our sometimes ill-informed ideas – and usually turns out to be much more interesting.
Thanks, Dan. When they’re fighting (or fishing), what impresses me most is their blinding speed, especially for such a large bird. They’re much too fast for the photographer to react to in time, all we can hope for is anticipating what they’re going to do. And that involves a lot of luck but being familiar with their behaviors helps a lot.
Amazing photo sequence. So interesting and educational and beautiful too.
Thank you, Eloise.
Very interesting post Ron. I have never witnessed that behavior with Snowy or Great Egrets. I will have to go along with Nancy and spend more time with them. My wife would read Michael’s comment about the shirt and say, “That’s my man.” Now thank goodness as a retired person I almost never am seen in a white shirt.
Hope those fires and smoke calm down for you.
Everett, I haven’t worn a white dress shirt since I was about 28 years old. I’ve always hated them, along with ties.
I second Rick’s reaction. I guess I should pay more attention to the egrets in the fall. Seems like territory is no longer an issue and food is plentiful at this time of year. Why are they so grouchy?
“Why are they so grouchy?”
Nancy, I think they’re just defending their little patch of feeding territory, temporary though it is.
Wow! Yet another bird behavior that I’ve never before witnessed. Very nice sequence Ron! Thanks for sharing with us.
Thank you, Rick.
Neat series, Ron! Another case of “beautiful with a nasty streak” it seems…… 😉 Looks like the one pinned in the water is saying “ah, cmon, give me a break” 🙂
Don’t wish you the smoke but we sure have enjoyed the break from it and heat for a couple of days! High of 57 yesterday (yes, furnace fired up) and no smoke – 35 this morning. That will change again starting tomorrow after a civilized (75) day today.
Judy, you deserve the positive change in your weather. I just hope you get water in your creek, soon.
Given the fiery atmospheric haze, I was half expecting the egrets to
have a pinkish tone to their. feathers–was that red sky gone by the
time the egrets were tussling ? What a scary scene– I wouldn’t have
expected such elegant-looking creatures to fight in such deadly earnest……
Kris, the red sky didn’t last long and the egrets were some of the last birds I photographed that morning. I didn’t take these photos until 9:42, almost 2 1/2 hours after the sun came up.
Very interesting series. While I have seen other birds have similar disagreements, I have never seen egrets doing this.
One of the other things I am amazed by is how birds and other animals that are so snowy white manage to look so spotlessly clean. As for myself, if I wear a white shirt, I do not think I can go two hours without getting some sort of coffee or other spot of dirt on it.
Here, these two get into a tussle and not look any worse for wear.
Ha, you sound like me Michael. Put something clean on and it’s usually a mess within minutes.