This Great Egret (Ardea alba) showed great balance and flexibility as it meticulously preened its feathers on Monday at Huntley Meadows Park. I would definitely need to see a chiropractor if I tried to imitate the position in the first image, assuming I did not completely fall over.
Great Egrets are relatively common in this park during the warmer months of the year, though they will soon depart for the winter. The Great Blue Herons, however, stay with us throughout the entire winter. I enjoy watching these large wading birds, never knowing when I will catch them in an unusual position or exhibiting an unusual behavior. The first shot is my clear favorite, because of the unusual body position, but I have included a couple of additional shots to show you various moments during the preening process.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Bird Taijijuan
I like the bill-up pose in that first picture.
Great job getting the exposure just perfect in these shots. White birds are so difficult!
Thanks, Sue. I underexposed the images to try to keep from blowing out the feather details on the egret. Afterwards I had to play a bit with settings to try to keep the whites looking white. I totally agree that bright white birds are really, really tough to photograph.