{"id":49619,"date":"2017-11-30T05:25:39","date_gmt":"2017-11-30T12:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=49619"},"modified":"2025-09-01T14:16:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T19:16:37","slug":"great-egret-landing-in-a-lagoon-with-prey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/11\/30\/great-egret-landing-in-a-lagoon-with-prey\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Egret Landing In A Lagoon With Prey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GreatGreat Egret landing with dinner – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1000, ISO 160, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I don’t often see wading birds in flight with large prey in their bills so in April of 2009 I was excited to see a Great Egret landing in a lagoon with a large fish in its bill.<\/p>\n

I had spent the morning on Egmont Key with other participants in the Florida Master Naturalist Program and had ferried back to Fort De Soto County Park<\/span><\/a> to finish up my day photographing the birds at the north beach when I saw the Great Egret in flight and saw through my viewfinder that it had prey in its bill.<\/p>\n

I hoped the large, white wading bird would come close enough for me to obtain images of it landing and I was quite pleased when it did.<\/p>\n

I’m not sure what species of fish the egret had but it was rather large and seemed to slow the egret down while it was in flight.<\/p>\n

I believe this is the largest fish I have ever photographed while a wading bird carried it in its bill while in flight.<\/p>\n

The lores of the Great Egret show some green coloration so the bird may have been going into or coming out of its breeding plumage.<\/p>\n

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I spent quite a bit of my day yesterday dealing with another low battery issue, not the batteries of any of my cameras but that of my Jeep. I bought a battery in January of 2016 and it had to be replaced in April of 2017 because it wasn’t holding a charge.<\/p>\n

This week I noticed some hesitation when I started my Jeep and knew something was going on with the\u00a0 battery yet again. It was determined that the replacement battery I had installed in April was also not holding a charge and that it needed be replaced again. It was still under warranty and would be replaced cost free so I decided to spend a few extra dollars and upgraded to a better, stronger battery.<\/p>\n

I feel better and safer this morning knowing that I have a reliable battery installed in my vehicle because there are times I am out photographing in remote areas where cell phone signals can be sketchy and where calling for roadside assistance might not be possible.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good. So is having a vehicle that is well maintained.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

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

I don’t often see wading birds in flight with large prey in their bills so in April of 2009 I was excited to see a Great Egret landing in a lagoon with a large fish in its bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":153779,"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":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,25,704,362,2000],"tags":[4272,6252,16708,743,351,4432,4052,4122,1130,363,173,3997,4123,4106,165,313],"class_list":["post-49619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-great-egrets","category-pinellas-county-florida","tag-ardea-alba","tag-carrying-prey","tag-dinner","tag-egret","tag-egrets","tag-fish","tag-flight","tag-flying","tag-food","tag-great-egret","tag-gulf-coast","tag-lagoon","tag-landing","tag-prey","tag-spring","tag-wading-birds"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-egret-prey-landing-mia-mcpherson-3567.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-cUj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18637,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/01\/18\/great-egrets-big-white-wading-birds\/","url_meta":{"origin":49619,"position":0},"title":"Great Egrets – Big White Wading Birds","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"After posting Great Blue Heron images yesterday I decided to post images of Great Egrets which are also a large wading bird species this morning.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Egret in flight, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-egret-flight-mia-mcpherson-2568.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-egret-flight-mia-mcpherson-2568.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-egret-flight-mia-mcpherson-2568.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 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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 "Birds"","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, 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Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-lagoon-mia-mcpherson-3506.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-lagoon-mia-mcpherson-3506.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-lagoon-mia-mcpherson-3506.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-lagoon-mia-mcpherson-3506.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9730,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/10\/06\/snowy-egret-in-a-hurry\/","url_meta":{"origin":49619,"position":4},"title":"Snowy Egret in a hurry","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"October 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Snowy Egret in a hurry that I photographed almost exactly 5 years ago while sitting low in a Florida lagoon.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Snowy Egret in a hurry, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-adult-mia-mcpherson-5198.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-adult-mia-mcpherson-5198.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-adult-mia-mcpherson-5198.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-adult-mia-mcpherson-5198.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":35111,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/01\/26\/a-solitary-snowy-egret-in-low-light\/","url_meta":{"origin":49619,"position":5},"title":"Solitary Snowy Egret In Low Light","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This image of a solitary Snowy Egret in low light is simple but I find the simplicity of it appealing.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Snowy Egret in low light, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-high-key-mia-mcpherson-4016.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/snowy-egret-high-key-mia-mcpherson-4016.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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