{"id":6384,"date":"2012-10-17T03:55:26","date_gmt":"2012-10-17T09:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=6384"},"modified":"2025-09-22T13:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T18:10:09","slug":"four-years-ago-today-at-fort-de-soto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/10\/17\/four-years-ago-today-at-fort-de-soto\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Years Ago Today At Fort De Soto"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just a few images taken 4 years ago today at the north beach of Fort De Soto.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-153722 size-full\" title=\"Great Egret in flight pano, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-egret-mia-mcpherson-7415.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-egret-mia-mcpherson-7415.jpg\" alt=\"Great Egret in flight pano, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" width=\"850\" height=\"460\" data-id=\"11581\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27460%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20460%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27460%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-egret-mia-mcpherson-7415-200x108.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-egret-mia-mcpherson-7415-400x216.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-egret-mia-mcpherson-7415-600x325.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-egret-mia-mcpherson-7415-768x416.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/great-egret-mia-mcpherson-7415.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Great Egret in flight pano<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It was not a super busy day but I did get quite a few images that I like. I was in the lagoon when this Great Egret flew in, it was a slow approach to the landing and it gave me time to get quite a few images of it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-157601 size-full\" title=\"Reddish Egret with a fish in a lagoon, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-fish-mia-mcpherson-7445.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-fish-mia-mcpherson-7445.jpg\" alt=\"Reddish Egret with a fish in a lagoon, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" width=\"850\" height=\"607\" data-id=\"11580\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20607%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-fish-mia-mcpherson-7445-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-fish-mia-mcpherson-7445-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-fish-mia-mcpherson-7445-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-fish-mia-mcpherson-7445-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-fish-mia-mcpherson-7445-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-fish-mia-mcpherson-7445.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Reddish Egret with a fish in a lagoon<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This Reddish Egret was very cooperative but I believe that was because it took the egret nearly 5 minutes to get the fish down its throat! Those spines looked&#8230; sharp! Kind of made my throat scratchy just watching it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-150327 size-full\" title=\"Nonbreeding Laughing Gull on exposed sea grass bed, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/laughing-gull-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-7480.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/laughing-gull-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-7480.jpg\" alt=\"Nonbreeding Laughing Gull on exposed sea grass bed, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida\" width=\"850\" height=\"607\" data-id=\"11582\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20607%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/laughing-gull-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-7480-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/laughing-gull-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-7480-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/laughing-gull-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-7480-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/laughing-gull-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-7480-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/laughing-gull-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-7480-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/laughing-gull-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-7480.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #888888;\">Nonbreeding Laughing Gull on exposed sea grass bed<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This Laughing Gull was hanging around the Reddish Egret, maybe it was hoping to steal the fish the egret had such a hard time swallowing. It sure looked lovely in it&#8217;s nonbreeding plumage on the dark green sea grasses.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/birds\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my bird photos in their galleries.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #888888;\">*I&#8217;m probably packing to head out for my last camping trip of the year. Feel free to share this post with your friends &amp; family!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just a few images taken 4 years ago today at the north beach of Fort De Soto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":157601,"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":[27,25,704,362,188,157],"tags":[4272,4021,4083,351,4185,363,521,3995,4160,3980,160,313],"class_list":["post-6384","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-laughing-gulls-gulls","category-reddish-egret","tag-ardea-alba","tag-bird-photography","tag-birding","tag-egrets","tag-egretta-rufescens","tag-great-egret","tag-gulls","tag-laughing-gull","tag-leucophaeus-atricilla","tag-pinellas-county","tag-reddish-egret","tag-wading-birds"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-fish-mia-mcpherson-7445.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1EY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1780,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/01\/17\/reddish-egret-laughing-and-ring-billed-gulls\/","url_meta":{"origin":6384,"position":0},"title":"Reddish Egret, Laughing and Ring-billed Gulls","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"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.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Florida&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Florida","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/florida\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Reddish Egret and 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-mia-mcpherson-0341.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-mia-mcpherson-0341.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/reddish-egret-laughing-gulls-mia-mcpherson-0341.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/reddish-egret-laughing-gulls-mia-mcpherson-0341.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4861,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/04\/23\/reddish-egret-being-shadowed-by-laughing-gulls\/","url_meta":{"origin":6384,"position":1},"title":"Reddish Egret Being Shadowed by Laughing Gulls","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 23, 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 &quot;Birds&quot;","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, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/reddish-egret-laughing-gulls-0566.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":50993,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/02\/16\/pair-of-reddish-egrets-fighting-over-food\/","url_meta":{"origin":6384,"position":2},"title":"Pair of Reddish Egrets Fighting Over Food","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I didn't have a great angle of light when I photographed this pair of Reddish Egrets but I didn't want to move and disturb the birds so I stood still as I could.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Pair of Reddish Egrets fighting over prey, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, 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":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":6384,"position":3},"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 &quot;Birds&quot;","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, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-running-mia-mcpherson-0153.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-running-mia-mcpherson-0153.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5355,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/07\/21\/reddish-egret\/","url_meta":{"origin":6384,"position":4},"title":"Reddish Egret With Lunch","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I photographed this Reddish Egret (Egretta rufescens) in October of 2008 at Fort De Soto's north beach.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Reddish Egret lunch time, 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-7448.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-7448.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-7448.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14405,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/02\/21\/reddish-egret-cleared-for-landing\/","url_meta":{"origin":6384,"position":5},"title":"Reddish Egret cleared for landing","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 21, 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 &quot;Birds&quot;","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, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-morph-landing-mia-mcpherson-1555.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}