{"id":8463,"date":"2013-05-29T03:40:40","date_gmt":"2013-05-29T09:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=8463"},"modified":"2025-09-22T14:00:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T19:00:39","slug":"bubble-bubble-oil-is-trouble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/05\/29\/bubble-bubble-oil-is-trouble\/","title":{"rendered":"Bubble, Bubble, Oil is Trouble"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ReddishReddish Egret with oil on its plumage<\/span><\/p>\n

Summertime is upon us now and with it comes loads of people participating in outdoor activities like hiking, sports, camping and activities on the water. Everyone looks forward to warmer weather after winter but some of those activities can impact birds and wildlife.<\/p>\n

I photographed the Reddish Egret above in May of 2009 at Fort De Soto Count Park’s north beach.<\/p>\n

It was a warm morning and I was inside\u00a0a lagoon kneeling on my knees while the egret was hunting, the action was intense and there were times the egret came in very close to me, it was so exciting and quick that I barely had time to make sure my exposure was okay before I fired off shot after shot of the Reddish Egret.<\/p>\n

I really liked this pose with the wings lifted, the great eye contact, the background and the beautiful light. It is a wonderful image… until you look closer.<\/p>\n

\"ReddishReddish Egret with oil on it<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the same image, I have just drawn lines to indicate what I saw when I got home and brought the series of images of this Reddish Egret up on my monitor.<\/p>\n

Every red line shows an area where some type of motor oil had saturated the Reddish Egret’s plumage.<\/p>\n

The marina isn’t too far from where I photographed this handsome wading bird as a crow flies and I suspect that there was a boat leaking oil that this egret inadvertently got into. The tips of the primaries were saturated, some of the secondaries, tail feathers and coverts also were coated in oil.<\/p>\n

\"PointingPointing to the oil on a Reddish Egret<\/span><\/p>\n

This image shows the oil saturated tail, the feathers near the vent, the upper scapulars and on top of the bird’s head.<\/p>\n

Reddish Egrets are often in water that reaches their under sides when they are actively hunting which means their tail and ventral area come in direct contact with the water and oils which are lighter than water will form a film on it and when it comes in contact with a birds feathers gets soaked up by them.<\/p>\n

Also while Reddish Egrets\u00a0are hunting they push their heads under the water to get their prey which explains how the oil came to be on the egret’s head.<\/p>\n

\"AA different view of the Oil on the Reddish Egret<\/span><\/p>\n

This view shows the dark stain of the oil and it also shows how matted the feathers were because of the oil.<\/p>\n

Even a quart of oil spread over a wide area of water can cause huge problems for the birds and wildlife that come in contact with it.<\/p>\n

The oil is poison, I won’t sugar coat that fact. It is poison to wildlife and it is poison to us. This bird got the oil on it in the same water that children would swim in.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe same Reddish Egret a week later<\/span><\/p>\n

This is an image of the same bird a week later, the darkness of the oil isn’t as evident on the primaries or the head but there is still oil stained and matted secondaries.<\/p>\n

Egrets usually preen several times a day and this egret’s bill would have come into contact with those oily feathers which means the bird also ingested the oil which is poisonous.<\/p>\n

The egret eventually got the oil off and it did survive but many other animals that come into contact with oils don’t.<\/p>\n

I hope that boaters will be careful this summer and not pollute our precious waters or poison the wildlife that depends on it. Our recreation shouldn’t endanger wildlife.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

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

The oiled bird was reported to Jim Wilson, the park supervisor. During that period of a week I did see two other birds; a White Ibis and a Yellow-crowned Night Heron, with a small amount of oil on them. This situation could have been much worse.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summertime is upon us now and with it comes loads of people participating in outdoor activities like hiking, sports, camping and activities on the water. Everyone looks forward to warmer weather after winter but some of those activities can impact birds and wildlife.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":157618,"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":[27,25,704,2000,157],"tags":[4021,2233,743,351,4185,2229,2230,2234,2232,2231,313],"class_list":["post-8463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-reddish-egret","tag-bird-photography","tag-boating","tag-egret","tag-egrets","tag-egretta-rufescens","tag-oil","tag-oil-pollution","tag-oiled-birds","tag-outdoor-recreation","tag-poison","tag-wading-birds"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-oil-mia-mcpherson-0699.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-2cv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5355,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/07\/21\/reddish-egret\/","url_meta":{"origin":8463,"position":0},"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 "Birds"","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":15214,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/06\/15\/reddish-egrets-wading-birds-that-delight\/","url_meta":{"origin":8463,"position":1},"title":"Reddish Egrets – Wading Birds That Delight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Reddish Egret is one of my favorite wading birds. Standing still they are a delight to the eyes and while hunting they can perform amazing turns, twists, gallops and appear to be dancing.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Reddish Egret hunting by the sand dunes, 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-lagoon-foraging-mia-mcpherson-8068.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-lagoon-foraging-mia-mcpherson-8068.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/reddish-egret-dark-morph-lagoon-foraging-mia-mcpherson-8068.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\/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":[]},{"id":2728,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2011\/07\/08\/friday-photos-white-morph-reddish-egret\/","url_meta":{"origin":8463,"position":3},"title":"Friday Photos – White Morph Reddish Egret","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Reddish Egrets seem to be natural born \"Dancers\" when they are hunting for prey, they twirl, spin, piroquette and dip.","rel":"","context":"In "Bird ID"","block_context":{"text":"Bird ID","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/bird-identification\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Dancer \u2013 White Morph of 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-white-morph-dancer-florida-mia-mcpherson-5293.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-white-morph-dancer-florida-mia-mcpherson-5293.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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McPherson","date":"February 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"While I lived in Florida I simply adored being able to photograph Reddish Egrets, they can be graceful or goofy looking, they twirl, dash and dance.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"White morph 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-white-morph-hunting-mia-mcpherson-8148.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-white-morph-hunting-mia-mcpherson-8148.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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