{"id":14405,"date":"2014-02-21T06:12:11","date_gmt":"2014-02-21T13:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=14405"},"modified":"2025-09-22T14:27:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T19:27:00","slug":"reddish-egret-cleared-for-landing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/02\/21\/reddish-egret-cleared-for-landing\/","title":{"rendered":"Reddish Egret cleared for landing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-157639 size-full\" title=\"Landing dark morph Reddish Egret, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-morph-landing-mia-mcpherson-1555.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-morph-landing-mia-mcpherson-1555.jpg\" alt=\"Landing dark morph Reddish Egret, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" width=\"900\" height=\"636\" data-id=\"14404\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27636%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20900%20636%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27900%27%20height%3D%27636%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-morph-landing-mia-mcpherson-1555-200x141.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-morph-landing-mia-mcpherson-1555-400x283.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-morph-landing-mia-mcpherson-1555-600x424.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-morph-landing-mia-mcpherson-1555-768x543.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-morph-landing-mia-mcpherson-1555.jpg 900w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><span style=\"color: #888888;\">Landing dark morph Reddish Egret &#8211; Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/750, ISO 200, Nikkor 80-400mm at 260mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This is one of my favorite Reddish Egret images that I have taken at Fort De Soto County Park&#8217;s north beach.<\/p>\n<p>Sure I have closer images of Reddish Egrets, images that show more fine details, images that were taken in better or sweet light but I love this landing pose, the egret&#8217;s apparent concentration and the story behind this image.<\/p>\n<p>I had been photographing this Reddish Egret for most of the morning and have a series of it where it was hunting for prey along the shore of the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>What can&#8217;t been seen in this image is a white morph Reddish Egret outside of the frame and the reason this Reddish Egret flew in like it did was that this egret was defending it&#8217;s territory from the white morph Reddish Egret.<\/p>\n<p>At the time I thought I was going to see a battle between the two birds but I guess the white morph <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/guide\/Reddish_Egret\/overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Reddish Egret<\/span><\/a> decided &#8220;there were other fish in the sea&#8221; and it flew off right away.<\/p>\n<p>Life <em>is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/reddish-egret-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to view more of my Reddish Egret photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is one of my favorite Reddish Egret images that I have taken at Fort De Soto County Park&#8217;s north beach. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":157639,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,704,157],"tags":[4004,5229,5132,4530,743,351,4185,4052,4122,4077,4123,160,313,3996,4119],"class_list":["post-14405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-reddish-egret","tag-adult","tag-coast","tag-coastal","tag-dark-morph","tag-egret","tag-egrets","tag-egretta-rufescens","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-landing","tag-reddish-egret","tag-wading-birds","tag-water","tag-waves"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-morph-landing-mia-mcpherson-1555.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-3Kl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":63221,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/01\/25\/fun-photographing-reddish-egrets-in-florida\/","url_meta":{"origin":14405,"position":0},"title":"Fun Photographing Reddish Egrets In Florida","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I had so much fun photographing Reddish Egrets when I lived in Florida and could see them nearly every time I went to Fort De Soto County Park's north beach.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Reddish Egret foraging near mangroves, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-mangroves-mia-mcpherson-8790.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-mangroves-mia-mcpherson-8790.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-mangroves-mia-mcpherson-8790.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-mangroves-mia-mcpherson-8790.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20083,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/02\/15\/dark-and-white-morph-reddish-egrets-in-breeding-plumage\/","url_meta":{"origin":14405,"position":1},"title":"Dark and White Morph Reddish Egrets in Breeding Plumage","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Reddish Egrets I photographed that May morning were busy hunting and paid me almost no attention as they went about their daily business of find prey.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Dark morph Reddish Egret in breeding plumage, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/reddish-egret-hunting-mia-mcpherson-5432.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/reddish-egret-hunting-mia-mcpherson-5432.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/reddish-egret-hunting-mia-mcpherson-5432.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/reddish-egret-hunting-mia-mcpherson-5432.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15049,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/05\/25\/white-and-dark-morph-reddish-egrets-hunting\/","url_meta":{"origin":14405,"position":2},"title":"White and Dark Morph Reddish Egrets Hunting","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"As a bird photographer I feel it is very important to me that my images show my subjects and the settings they are in as accurately as possible.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White morph Reddish Egret in breeding plumage hunting in the Gulf of Mexico, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-hunting-gulf-mia-mcpherson-5269.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-hunting-gulf-mia-mcpherson-5269.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-hunting-gulf-mia-mcpherson-5269.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-hunting-gulf-mia-mcpherson-5269.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":49290,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/11\/05\/immature-reddish-egret-adult-in-flight-with-nesting-material\/","url_meta":{"origin":14405,"position":3},"title":"Immature Reddish Egret &#038; Adult in Flight with Nesting Material","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Immature or adult, dark or white morph, Reddish Egrets are spectacular and fascinating wading birds to see, observe and photograph.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Reddish Egret at Lassing Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-immature-water-mia-mcpherson-6223.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-immature-water-mia-mcpherson-6223.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-immature-water-mia-mcpherson-6223.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-immature-water-mia-mcpherson-6223.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15214,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/06\/15\/reddish-egrets-wading-birds-that-delight\/","url_meta":{"origin":14405,"position":4},"title":"Reddish Egrets &#8211; Wading Birds That Delight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Reddish Egret is one of my favorite wading birds. Standing still they are a delight to the eyes and while hunting they can perform amazing turns, twists, gallops and appear to be dancing.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Reddish Egret hunting by the sand dunes, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-morph-lagoon-foraging-mia-mcpherson-8068.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-morph-lagoon-foraging-mia-mcpherson-8068.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-morph-lagoon-foraging-mia-mcpherson-8068.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-morph-lagoon-foraging-mia-mcpherson-8068.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4516,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/02\/22\/reddish-egret-hunting\/","url_meta":{"origin":14405,"position":5},"title":"Reddish Egret Hunting","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"While I lived in Florida I simply adored being able to photograph Reddish Egrets, they can be graceful or goofy looking, they twirl, dash and dance.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White morph Reddish Egret hunting, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-hunting-mia-mcpherson-8148.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-hunting-mia-mcpherson-8148.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-hunting-mia-mcpherson-8148.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-white-morph-hunting-mia-mcpherson-8148.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}