{"id":51174,"date":"2018-03-07T06:44:11","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T13:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=51174"},"modified":"2026-10-24T11:16:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T16:16:25","slug":"when-the-s___-hits-the-fan-go-to-a-happy-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/03\/07\/when-the-s___-hits-the-fan-go-to-a-happy-place\/","title":{"rendered":"When the S___ Hits the Fan, Go To a Happy Place"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sunrise,Sunrise, American Egret and a tidal lagoon – Nikon D200, handheld, f9, 1\/500, ISO 400, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 102mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

My morning has been a mess, the s___ hit the fan and while I have most of the problems sorted I haven’t had time to do the post I was going to do so instead I am simply posting a photo of a “Happy Place” for me.<\/p>\n

A tidal lagoon at Fort De Soto County Park in Pinellas County Florida to help soothe my jangled nerves.<\/p>\n

The sun hadn’t yet come up when I spotted this American Egret in the tidal lagoon with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in the background and it looked like the water was on fire. Or like a fine Cognac had filled the lagoon.<\/p>\n

Ommm<\/p>\n

Birds, the smell of salt air, the warm, silky water on my legs and feet, the sound of the waves on the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n

Ommm<\/p>\n

Yeah, I needed to see one of my happy places today.<\/p>\n

Life is good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my American Egret photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n

Update<\/strong>: Great Egrets were renamed American Egrets in October 2026, the scientific name was changed to Ardea egretta<\/em>. This post has been updated to reflect those changes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sun hadn’t yet come up when I spotted this Great Egret in the tidal lagoon with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in the background and it looked like the water was on fire. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":153783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_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":[362,27,25,704,2000],"tags":[363,4272,14752,743,351,173,4077,6386,4190,6387,4140,313],"class_list":["post-51174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-egrets","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-pinellas-county-florida","tag-american-egret","tag-ardea-egretta","tag-coastal-island","tag-egret","tag-egrets","tag-gulf-coast","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-happy-place","tag-sunrise","tag-sunshine-skyway-bridge","tag-tidal-lagoon","tag-wading-birds"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\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\n\t\t