Quick Sidestep

Last night we had a good size crowd of egrets all fishing together in the salt marsh at the same time.

Except… not very much actual fishing was taking place. Mostly what they were doing was squawking and fussing at each other.

At one point an egret got jumped by another and it looks like the bird on the right had his wings going in one direction, while his head and feet were simultaneously going in a different direction.

It was entertaining out there but quite loud as well with all the noise this group was making!

14 thoughts on “Quick Sidestep”

Gunta on November 27, 2014 at 9:35 pm said:

It looks like some fancy ballet move.

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- Phil Lanoue on November 27, 2014 at 9:42 pm said:
  
  Yeah it kind of does look like a ballet. But a weird one. 🙂 those birds were hysterical out there last night, there had to be 20 of them at one point.
  
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anotherday2paradise on November 27, 2014 at 10:46 pm said:

Such an amazing shot, Phil. Looks like a clip from “Strictly Come Dancing.” Were this couple the winners?

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- Phil Lanoue on November 27, 2014 at 11:07 pm said:
  
  It would have been tough to pick a winner on this event, there had to be 20 of these guys out there at one point. They were fun to watch and made a real racket. 🙂
  
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Lyle Krahn on November 27, 2014 at 10:59 pm said:

I’m not sure a guy my age should even be looking at bodies twisted around like that – I already feel something creaking.

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- Phil Lanoue on November 27, 2014 at 11:04 pm said:
  
  Ooo you are right. Now that I look at it that way it does hurt.
  It was dark out there too. This was 4000 ISO just to get the shot. I went up to 6400 a little later.
  
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  - Lyle Krahn on November 28, 2014 at 1:04 am said:
    
    It’s fun to use types of ISOs isn’t it?
    
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    - Phil Lanoue on November 28, 2014 at 9:26 am said:
      
      Yeah normally I would have left already considering how dim the lighting was (even for white birds) but I wanted to fool around with high ISO on the new 7D MK II . Excessive noise in the original 7D was always an issue when using higher ISO.
      
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foxleylady on November 28, 2014 at 1:37 pm said:

Funney how creatures that are so elegant and beautiful can be so quarrelsome!

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- Phil Lanoue on November 29, 2014 at 8:09 pm said:
  
  We could not believe they carried on so loudly! So much energy has to be used arguing when they could be fishing. Funny birds.
  
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The Lite Rider on November 28, 2014 at 5:23 pm said:

Maybe not the happiest Thanksgiving for this lot? That had to be quite a racket, what with all the squawking and flapping! Love that photo!

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- Phil Lanoue on November 29, 2014 at 8:12 pm said:
  
  I have a ton of pictures from this amazing event that I have not had time to go through yet. There was so much going on I didn’t know where to look. Glad you enjoyed this photo I’ll have to get more up soon.
  
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Birder's Journey on December 2, 2014 at 7:35 pm said:

Fantastic action!

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- Phil Lanoue on December 8, 2014 at 5:27 pm said:
  
  Thanks very much, glad you liked seeing the egrets in action!
  
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