{"id":27419,"date":"2015-08-14T04:43:53","date_gmt":"2015-08-14T10:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=27419"},"modified":"2025-06-27T08:49:19","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T13:49:19","slug":"a-flurry-of-snowies-in-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/08\/14\/a-flurry-of-snowies-in-august\/","title":{"rendered":"Flurry of Snowies in August"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was lots of bird activity yesterday at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> and a flurry of Snowies I spotted kept things interesting early in the morning.<\/p>\n

\"SnowySnowy Egret scratching – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 400, – 0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

These lovely, white wading birds had congregated in one area where the river was low and where the light was good.<\/p>\n

\"SnowySnowy Egret about to scratch – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 400, – 0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

By this time of the year Snowy Egrets are done with nesting and brooding their young.\u00a0 I only saw adults at this location but from my visits to the refuge lately I would say they had a successful breeding season just by the large numbers of Snowy Egrets I have seen.<\/p>\n

\"ReallyReally big stretch from a Snowy Egret – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 400, – 0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The Snowy Egrets yesterday were foraging, resting, preening, stretching, chasing each other around and all of them were avoiding one juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron who seemed to have staked out the area as its territory.<\/p>\n

\"SnowySnowy Egret preening on a perch in the Bear River – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/2000, ISO 400, – 0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a bright, clear morning so exposing the bright white plumage of the egrets correctly against the darker water was a challenge because whites are easy to blow out which leaves the plumage without fine details.<\/p>\n

\"SnowySnowy Egret about to land – Nikon D810, f6.3, 1\/3200, ISO 400, – 0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

This Snowy Egret was landing after being chased off a rock in the river by the young Black-crowned Night Heron. I sure like the spread wings, flared tail and great view of the “Golden Slippers” that Snowy Egrets are known for.<\/p>\n

\"SnowySnowy Egret rousing after a preening session – Nikon D810, f13, 1\/640, ISO 400, – 0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

A group of egrets has many collective nouns including a “congregation”, “heronry”, “RSVP”, “skewer” and “wedge” but I think that a “flurry” best describes a group of Snowy Egrets. I like seeing a flurry of Snowy Egrets any time of the year.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

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

There was lots of bird activity yesterday at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and a flurry of Snowy Egrets kept things interesting early in the morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":149479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[124,27,1148,255,26],"tags":[4004,4529,3954,743,351,4120,5025,4052,3955,4122,7768,4123,4094,4019,3199,4541,4502,3988,4826,3964,313,4095],"class_list":["post-27419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-snowy-egrets","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-bear-river","tag-congregation","tag-egret","tag-egrets","tag-egretta-thula","tag-feathers","tag-flight","tag-flurry","tag-flying","tag-land","tag-landing","tag-marsh","tag-preening-2","tag-rousing","tag-scratching","tag-shaking","tag-snowy-egret","tag-stretch","tag-stretching","tag-wading-birds","tag-wetlands"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t