“Radar” And A Friend
Some of you may remember seeing our pal “Radar” here before. He is the great egret that has a transmitter pack attached to his back with two antennas sticking out.
He is supposed to be a part of a study of migratory habits of wading birds. The problem with that is”Radar” never really goes very far, so it’s likely his data contribution is not tremendously helpful.
Anyway here he was last night enjoying his evening in the marsh with a friend. They got along just fine.
Actually wading birds such as egrets and herons will often stay near an alligator that is actively feeding. The gator will get fish all stirred up and in a panic, which can make them easier for the birds to catch.
Phil Lanoue Photography 
Uii, wird er ihn fressen?
Sie sind keine Freunde. 🙂 😉
Nice partnership.
Yes, a bit uneasy at times but for the most part it works.
Thank you.
Increíble toma! y el cocodrilo no lo ataca?
Thank you!
No se llevan bien. 🙂
Heh heh… I love how Radar never strays far from his home. 🙂 I often see these symbiotic relationships with our waders + gators — it worries some, but the gators usually only go for the moorhens and whatnot. Nice that you show the relationship!!
Yeah that Radar is some piece of work that’s for sure. We saw him this morning just hanging out. There had to be close to 200 birds (storks, egrets, ibis,) all feeding in one small section of the salt marsh at low tide but Radar did not get involved. He does not seem to have the flock mentality that so many of the birds generally demonstrate. Radar is a lone wolf. He aslo thinks he is head egret in charge.
We always enjoy seeing the waders and alligators all joined together in a common goal of getting fish. Everyone that has not witnessed that behavior previously always goes into a major panic thinking the alligators will try to eat the birds.
Its interesting to see these two so close together. I find it so interesting that some animals you would expect befriend each other at times.
This is one of my favorite aspects of nature to photograph…proximity shots of animals close togehter that you may not expect. Thanks for checking this out!
My pleasure! :+) I think it is very interesting as well it’s amazing what you can see when you take the time to be in nature. I would have never guessed that these too could hang out together.