{"id":1780,"date":"2011-01-17T08:43:56","date_gmt":"2011-01-17T14:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=1780"},"modified":"2025-08-05T09:04:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T14:04:27","slug":"reddish-egret-laughing-and-ring-billed-gulls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/01\/17\/reddish-egret-laughing-and-ring-billed-gulls\/","title":{"rendered":"Reddish Egret, Laughing and Ring-billed Gulls"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ring-billedRing-billed Gull chasing bait fish in the shallows – D200, f5.6, 1\/2000, ISO 320, 80-400mm VR at 300mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday was another gray day here in Utah so I worked on processing some of my older images, these are from September 12, 2008. Hurricane Ike<\/span><\/a> was churning out in the Gulf of Mexico heading towards the Texas coast.<\/p>\n

Although Florida escaped the brunt force of the storm we did get some strong winds and wave action. The sky was clear when I left home and headed towards Fort De Soto’s north beach but I could feel the wind blowing as I drove to the county park.<\/p>\n

The wave action was destructive to the shoreline but it also pushed bait fish towards the shore. Tossed around in the waves, injured, and probably dazed bait fish appear to be easy catches for sea, shore, and wading birds.<\/p>\n

\"ReddishReddish Egret and Laughing Gulls – D200, f5.6, 1\/2500, ISO 320, 80-400mm VR at 250mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

There were quite a few Laughing Gulls on and near the shoreline, a few Ring-billed Gulls\u00a0and two Reddish Egrets\u00a0 hunting on the beach that day.<\/p>\n

I always have great fun watching the Reddish Egrets hunting, they dance in the waves, dash back and forth at near break-neck speed, wings flying in all different directions. At times they look graceful and quite often comical.<\/p>\n

Because of the wave action that day there were plenty of bait fish where the waves on the beach are shallowest and the Reddish Egret was in its full glory.<\/p>\n

The Laughing and Ring-billed gulls seem to instinctively know if they follow the egret around they may get a chance to steal some prey from them. It was amazing to observe and photograph these gulls and the egret dashing around.<\/p>\n

None of us liked how Hurricane Ike affected the beaches of Fort De Soto, it was without a doubt damaging to everything in or near its path. It did; however, create some amazing conditions for photographing these birds.<\/p>\n

Have a great day. Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Reddish Egret photos plus facts and information about this species. Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Ring-billed Gull photos plus facts and information about this species. Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Laughing Gull photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were quite a few Laughing Gulls on and near the shoreline, a few Ring-billed Gulls and two Reddish Egrets hunting on the beach that day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":150276,"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":[25,704,188,2000,157,410],"tags":[4004,8452,4265,4039,5229,5132,743,351,4185,4227,4432,4077,3539,521,1808,4264,3995,4160,160,4468,3996,4119],"class_list":["post-1780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-laughing-gulls-gulls","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-reddish-egret","category-ring-billed-gulls","tag-adult","tag-bait-fish","tag-baitfish","tag-beach","tag-coast","tag-coastal","tag-egret","tag-egrets","tag-egretta-rufescens","tag-feeding-frenzy","tag-fish","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-gull","tag-gulls","tag-hurricane-ike-2","tag-larus-delawarensis","tag-laughing-gull","tag-leucophaeus-atricilla","tag-reddish-egret","tag-ring-billed-gull","tag-water","tag-waves"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/reddish-egret-laughing-gulls-mia-mcpherson-0341.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-sI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6098,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/09\/12\/4-years-ago-today-when-hurricane-ike-stirred-things-up-at-fort-de-soto\/","url_meta":{"origin":1780,"position":0},"title":"4 Years Ago Today When Hurricane Ike Stirred Things Up At Fort De Soto","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"September 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Four years ago today Hurricane Ike was out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and the waves that it generated made a strong splash at Fort De Soto County Park.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"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-running-mia-mcpherson-0153.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-running-mia-mcpherson-0153.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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2012","format":false,"excerpt":"There were two Reddish Egrets (Egretta rufescens) on the north beach of Fort De Soto that day and it was a blast to watch them race around catching the small fish.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Reddish Egret being shadowed by Laughing Gulls, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/reddish-egret-laughing-gulls-0566.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/reddish-egret-laughing-gulls-0566.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/reddish-egret-laughing-gulls-0566.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egrets-pair-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-0521.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-egrets-pair-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-0521.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egrets-pair-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-0521.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egrets-pair-dark-morph-mia-mcpherson-0521.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6384,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/10\/17\/four-years-ago-today-at-fort-de-soto\/","url_meta":{"origin":1780,"position":4},"title":"Four Years Ago Today At Fort De Soto","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Just a few images taken 4 years ago today at the north beach of Fort De Soto.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Reddish Egret with a fish in a lagoon, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-fish-mia-mcpherson-7445.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-fish-mia-mcpherson-7445.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-fish-mia-mcpherson-7445.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-fish-mia-mcpherson-7445.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":42825,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/10\/25\/laughing-gull-sliding-across-the-water\/","url_meta":{"origin":1780,"position":5},"title":"Laughing Gull Sliding Across the Water","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Of the images I took that day on the beach, and there were tons of them, this image of a Laughing Gull sliding across the water as it chased a fish in the shallow waves was one of my favorites.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Laughing Gull slip sliding away\u2026 Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, 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