Unlike Great Blue Herons, which remain throughout the winter, “our” Great Egrets (Ardea alba) overwinter in warmer places. Great Egrets may have returned weeks or even months ago, but it was only on Monday that I spotted my first ones of the year, while I was exploring Huntley Meadows Park, a marshland refuge not far from where I live. This park used to be my favorite place for wildlife photography, but it became so popular that it is frequently crowded, and for that reason I visit it now only occasionally.
As I approached a small viewing platform overlooking the central wetland area, I could see four Great Egrets, including one that was fairly close to the shore. I was mostly looking for dragonflies, butterflies that day, so I had my 180mm macro lens on my camera and a 24-105mm zoom lens in my bag. I was hoping that the close-in egret would remain in place, so I would have a chance of getting a shot with my macro lens, but the large white bird took off as I approached.
I had anticipated that this would happen, and managed to capture a few shots of the egret in flight. I was fortunate that the egret flew only a short distance to a nearby pile of branches and remained there, allowing me time to compose some additional shots.
Although I would have liked to have gotten closer to the action with a longer lens, I am pretty happy with the shots that I got, which highlight the habitat as well as the beautiful bird. I love the feathery wingspan in the first photo as the egret was preparing to land. In the second photo, you can see that the long feathers of the egret’s breeding plumage if you click on the image to see the details better.
Whenever people ask me about camera gear, I encourage them to use whatever they have, rather than staying a home and lamenting that they do not have. Make the best use possible of what you have—I try to apply that lesson in other aspects of my life and not just in photography.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Both are lovely and I especially like your first photo with the ruffled feathers and their shadows adding to the depth. It looks so wonderful and what a perfect setting!
Thanks, Liz. It is always a challenge for me when there is a bird with pure white feathers like a great egret. It is easy to overexpose the image resulting in blown-out highlights and a loss of details. In this case, things worked out pretty well in terms of light, shadows, and reflections.
Your great egret photos are truly lovely, Mike. I especially like that first one highlighting the multi-textural feathers and expansive wingspan. Great advice about cameras, too. I am a big believer in being out in the field as much as possible, the more you’re out, the more you see. And I know you are out in the field so very much, it’s wonderful.
Thanks, Jet. Egrets always seem so graceful, like ballerinas. I have always thought that “Swan Lake” could easily have been name “Egret Lake.” 🙂
I love the in-flight photo.
Thanks, Dan. It was almost a hop, skip, and a jump rather than a real flight, but it was enough to require ruffled feathers and a few flaps of the wings.
Ha. I love seeing them when they “fly” like that.
Lovely shots, Mike!
Thanks, Pete.
I think they are beautiful shots, Mike! Good advice too! Sometimes, if you please, could you mention the settings you were on in some of your photos? Also, do you use Shutter or Apature (sp) mostly?
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Thanks, Mitzy. I tend to shoot in Aperture priority mode for most of my photos, with camera set most often around f/8 or so. For the egret shots, my settings were f/8 and ISO 250. The camera selected shutter speeds between 1/1600 and 1/2000 and I had exposure compensation set for minus one stop to deliberately darken the shot. Feel free to ask me about settings any time that you like. I often get so caught up with storytelling that I forget to include the technical details. 🙂
thank you, Mike!
Wonderful captures and concluding mentality. 🙂
Thanks, Laura. I can’t help but include a bit of my personal philosophy in some of my postings. I think it helps readers to understand me a little bit better, although I don’t delve as deeply into my innermost feelings as you do in your writings.