{"id":5165,"date":"2012-06-11T03:55:10","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T09:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=5165"},"modified":"2025-09-22T11:44:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T16:44:00","slug":"white-morph-reddish-egret-in-stormy-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/06\/11\/white-morph-reddish-egret-in-stormy-light\/","title":{"rendered":"White Morph Reddish Egret in Stormy Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

In\u00a0my two previous posts of a Snowy Egret<\/a><\/span> and a Great Egret<\/span><\/a> I mentioned how the early morning light and a nearby storm gave those images a feeling of drama.<\/p>\n

These white morph Reddish Egret images were taken that same morning not long after I created the Great Egret photos.<\/p>\n

\"WhiteWhite morph Reddish Egret with a stormy background – Nikon D200, handheld, f5.6, 1\/800, ISO 125, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 280mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

As the storm moved closer it began to pour directly under the clouds and that area looked rather gray but the light was still gorgeous on my subject.<\/p>\n

I had moved south from the Great Egret when I came across this white morph Reddish Egret hunting in the shallow waters of a narrow tidal pool in between the beach and a small spit of sand that touched the Gulf of Mexico at Fort De Soto’s north beach.<\/p>\n

The egret ignored my presence while it hunted, I was laying flat on my stomach at right on the edge of the warm water. Again the weather conditions gave these images dramatic light.<\/p>\n

\"WhiteWhite Morph Reddish Egret hunting ahead of a storm – Nikon D200, handheld, f5.6, 1\/800, ISO 125, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 220mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

While I photographed this egret the lighting conditions changed rapidly and often, it would get a little brighter and then get darker.<\/p>\n

I’ve learned to work with the light rather than fight with it so I was not distressed about the challenges and I kept firing away, I still wasn’t sure when or if the storm would come in and I wanted as many images as I could possibly take of my subjects in the enchanting light.<\/p>\n

\"WhiteWhite morph Reddish Egret in dramatic light – Nikon D200, handheld, f5.6, 1\/500, ISO 125, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 310mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The Reddish Egret danced, pranced and dashed back and forth in front of me and struck some very interesting poses.<\/p>\n

They are fascinating to observe and photograph while they hunt.<\/p>\n

The storm off shore had kicked up the waves so I had to be careful to not dunk my gear into the water while still keeping my lens as low as I could.<\/p>\n

\"WhiteWhite morph Reddish Egret under stormy skies – Nikon D200, handheld, 5.6, 1\/1000, ISO 125, Nikkor 80-400mm at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The light brightened about the time I created this photo and I could see that the storm was heading towards the northeast, I knew about then that the storm was going to miss me at Fort De Soto. I spent another hour or so photographing other birds on the beach and tidal lagoons.<\/p>\n

As I drove home to Tampa I found the storm and drove through a deluge. I lucked out though because I had several memory cards full of images that contained the great light that thunderstorm provided.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my two previous posts of a Snowy Egret and a Great Egret I mentioned how the early morning light and a nearby storm gave those images a feeling of drama. These white morph Reddish Egret images were taken that same morning not long after I created the Great Egret photos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":120634,"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":[4004,5132,8451,743,351,4185,4136,173,4077,3970,4246,160,14695,1610,4500,9390,609,2315,313,3996,4119,4186],"class_list":["post-5165","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-coastal","tag-dramatic-light","tag-egret","tag-egrets","tag-egretta-rufescens","tag-foraging","tag-gulf-coast","tag-gulf-of-mexico","tag-hunting","tag-nonbreeding-plumage","tag-reddish-egret","tag-sandbar","tag-stomy-light","tag-storm","tag-stormy","tag-stormy-skies","tag-summer-3","tag-wading-birds","tag-water","tag-waves","tag-white-morph"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/reddish-egret-white-morph-mia-mcpherson-6527.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1lj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8813,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/07\/06\/five-years-ago-today-at-fort-de-soto\/","url_meta":{"origin":5165,"position":0},"title":"Five Years Ago Today At Fort De Soto","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Five years ago today I headed to the north beach of Fort De Soto County Park despite knowing that there were looming storms off of the coast hanging just off shore over the Gulf of Mexico and I am glad that I did because the light that day on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Oystercatchers"","block_context":{"text":"American Oystercatchers","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/shorebirds\/american-oystercatchers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"American Oystercatchers at north beach, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, 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2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This is one of my favorite Reddish Egret images that I have taken at 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":"Landing dark morph Reddish Egret, 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-landing-mia-mcpherson-1555.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-landing-mia-mcpherson-1555.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-morph-landing-mia-mcpherson-1555.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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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 "Birds"","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, 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