Great Baby Blue

We are working hard as we make the final push to the end of the year. You will be happy to know I have just started processing the spoils of our Texas trip back in January …of this year .. I know you were immediately wondering that based on my usual backlog ha. Not sure I will be able to get through the 700 gigs worth of those shots before he head back down there at the beginning of the year, but I will do my best. Then I can move on to the 600 gigs from Arizona in March/April followed by the latest Florida trip – once again I will be putting “An Intern” at the top of my wish list for Santa. Based on how successful that is, I might be able to remove “Take less pictures” from my 2026 goal list. Surely typical of all wildlife photographers out there..well, let’s generalize to just all photographers, taking the shot(s) is relatively quick in the process – reviewing, culling, processing, uploading to storage and then picking the few out of those worthy of your time…now that is the ten-fold time drag. My note on the HQ bulletin board looking for staff with free time still has all the tabs at the bottom. Word from our HR head says the employees think it is a ruse to get them to self-reveal the slackers. We would do no such thing hehehe.

So I soldier on. Feel sorry for me!?! Don’t, I kid, this is my thing and I truly enjoy our time in the field and ecstatic there are those, like yourselves, that like seeing the results. With that, time to get to the next installment of Baby Month!

Hmmm, I might be a little premature on this entry. Hit the jump to see why this Great Egret is giving me a cautious look.

Last April, Linda and I had the opportunity to visit High Island on the Bolivar Peninsula of Texas – an unincorporated area of Galveston County located on Galveston Bay. If you are a birder that spends any time in Texas, you are already fully aware of this location as it is a migration megaspot. Texas Birder lists this in the Top Ten Best Places in Texas to Go Birding (link here). I would put a small caveat on that classification and simply add..”During Migration”. Others may have a different opinion, but we have been there in January and it was basically dead.

There are 4 main birding sanctuaries on the island all managed by the Houston Audubon Society; Boy Scout Woods, Smith Oaks, Eubanks Woods and S.E. Gast Red Bay. There is a $10/day or $35/year admission fee that gets you into all four locations – a pretty good deal, especially for the magnitude of migration that comes through there in spring and fall.

Today we are focusing on the Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary..in particular, the rookery there in Claybottom Pond (link here). This was the first time we had a chance to experience this rookery in its prime production month. There were nesting Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Spoonbills, Anhingas, Herons and Cormorants EVERYWHERE – including this very proud to-be father pictured above.

There is a really nice boardwalks with an observation deck that looks out into a large patch of trees with nests cultivated over many years. Every nest we could see was occupied with a constant flow of fathers flying from and then back with prize sticks to present to the expectant mothers. Every once in a while, we would be treated to a special sight as the female Great Egret would raise up to adjust her position or do some nest organizing – gorgeous baby blue eggs.

Like I mentioned earlier, depending on your position regarding the true “baby” stage, I might be a tad early lumping this series into the theme of the month. The incubation period for Great Egrets is around 25 days so at most, less than a month off regardless as to how you look at it and close enough for me.

Cornell notes that the Great Egret clutch size ranges from 1 to 6 eggs. An interesting note to that is every nest that we were graciously given eyes to had exactly 3 eggs. They also classify their coloring as a pale greenish blue – I’m sticking with my early call of light blue.

I should mention there are multiple nests in this series of shots. A number of them were straight out from the observation area and others were spotted as we made our way along the trails that follow the waterline at the base of the boardwalk. There are several observation areas on that path as well, so be sure and explore the area if you happen to get over there.

Our senses were overwhelmed with the magnitude of nesting birds at this Rookery. We’ve been to several here in Illinois and a few other states, but nothing has compared to this level of feathered inhabitants. Beyond occasional quick skirmishes with Spoonbills, all the residents seemed to be getting along just fine. Most of the inter-species conflicts were due to the clunky Spoons basically crash landing trying to perch on tree branches that would catch the ire of whomever was nesting nearby. To their credit, the large framed Great Egrets were able to gracefully leave and return with ballet grace – even with large sticks protruding out of their bills.

In rare moments, there would be a verbal lashing between the couples. Did she figure out the ring was zirconian, was he “now praying for the end of time”, did he forget the milk or did she see a wandering eye at the pretty little thing in the neighboring nest. Or possibly just a “My ass hurts, time for you to sit on these butt boulders”. I did do some searching and found this site which confirmed both sexes sit on the eggs and also learned that both will go off in search of sticks which was new to me (link here).

For the most part, the couples were quite content to just hang out together and let the days pass before the eggs crack and the real work begins. Not having iPads and TVs means their options for keeping the new chicks distracted are limited.

There was one sentence in the Cornell behavior description that was a bit startling – “Nestlings compete fiercely with each other, and dominant chicks sometimes end up stabbing the youngest siblings to death”. Holy crap, let’s be thankful we have soft noses and not skilled in the art of teasing until much later in our development.

Unfortunately, our travel plans did not allow us to witness the newborns. Our friend Sam Rappen did have the opportunity to experience those gorgeous feather-balls this year and brought back some absolutely amazing shots. Please head over there if you would like get a look at the next stage of development (link here). Note, she provided multiple posts from her visits there, so be sure and take a look at those other offerings while you are there – if it is your first time seeing Sam’s work (link here), be sure and subscribe as she is a great asset to the birding community and equally skilled behind the glass!

There will be more posts coming from our visit to the rookery and I’ll leave you with a teaser tin to help build the anticipation.

That’s all from High Island for now. A word of caution, should you get the opportunity to check out this area, consider investing in 2 to 3 GALLONS of repellent – you will thank me later for the warning.

Okay, since I may have let some of you down by not having chicks to brighten your day, thought I would throw in a couple of bonus shots of Mottled Ducklings.

These were taken at Laffitte’s Cover Nature Preserve on Galveston Island. If you are on the island to bird, I highly recommend adding Laffitte’s to the agenda. It is a relatively small preserve nestled in the middle of a very nice neighborhood. It is a definite preserve versus what you would likely expect in this setting like an open urban park. From the small parking lot, you are first greeted with a large pond almost always filled with a good variety of water birds. That opens up to more of a open grassland that then gives way to dense tree growth with nicely maintained walkways.

This is a great opportunity to enjoy a variety of habitats without having to walk very far. These Ducklings are a little older than the ones recently featured (link here). Their mother was still keeping an eye on them from outside of the frame, but clearly letting them explore more on their own. It would be interesting to see how the little ones picked their guide across the pond – the dominant one, 2 out of 3 Rochambeau, Duck brawl cage match, mommy’s favorite one (translated the oldest) or maybe completely opposite where the leader is the loser and the expendable one should something evil be lurking under the water. One can only ponder

Will call it a post there friends. This is likely the last in this addition of Baby Month, but I’ll keep my eyes out as I scan the backlog queue or see something come up while continuing to process this year’s Texas trip. Thanks to how well this theme was received, I will also put the word out in our staff meeting for everyone to keep an eye out while in the field for entries to our next Baby Month edition.