The egret is a gregarious bird by nature so their nesting sites are often found in large trees or groups of trees. Big trees are a favored communal rookery location, and islands are especially popular for these nesting birds.
These nesting sites are an excellent opportunity for photographers to photograph nests, but it is important to avoid disturbing the birds by keeping one’s distance. That is why my shots are from afar. You can even see a few birds take flight, which I was trying to avoid.
Above and below, a tree is filled with lots of egrets. I only had a small Nikon P510 along on this trip to St. Lucia, so I had no telephoto lens to use. Carolyn and I were standing on a busy road so it was also not a place to set up a shot. In front of us was drainage ditches and marshy land. Egrets do like wetlands, although this is the arid part of the island. Next post I will show you how arid by what is growing.
Egrets also like to hang around horses and are much easier to approach from a photographic standpoint. They are common in fields following the horses and foraging in the manure.
They forage for seed as they follow the horses and cows around waiting for the next meal to drop. I think I have to add a “yuck” to this activity.
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