We are quickly approaching another page turning on the calendar. Normally I feel a bit down when this time comes as it marks another month gone, never to be recovered and the inevitable “I could have done more” feeling that has nagged me most of my life. In this case.. bring it on, this weather is too damn COLD!! Sorry, I’m not conditioned for these Midwest Tundra Februaries anymore ha. Before I get into today’s “redemption” post, need to get some brags out of the way. Ruger and Raven had their end of the year award recognition event last week and they wanted to show off their trophy plaques.
Raven has had a pretty incredible agility career over his 11 years so far and likes to hold it over his younger brother that he is on his 4th board. Those plates represent all his Agility Titles including Championships with a Tricks title thrown in – “Eat my dust Ruger-child!“.
Ruger likes to point out that he is only 4 and already filling a 2nd board with his Agility Titles including Championships along with his FastCAT Championship titles (100yd dash) and a Versatility in Poodle Certificate – “Suck it old man Raven!“
The brag bickering these two do back and forth on a daily basis is nearly insufferable. Don’t tell them or their heads will get bigger than they are, but we are very proud of both of them. The Boys and I are also very proud of “Mommy” who puts in all the work to get each of those plates. Well done everyone!
Okay, we need to get to today’s post which is really a companion piece to my last post.
So, I got a lot of feedback on how sad they felt for the male Reddish Egret that was embarrassingly rejected in front of all the locals at the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center (link here). It just so happens another encounter was occurring further south of there. Hit the jump to see if this meeting turned out any better.
I spotted this handsome devil of a Reddish Egret flying over the Mangrove shrubs at the South Padre Island Bird Viewing and Nature Center. All preened up and clearly on the prowl for some chickies.
I’m too sexy for my feathers
Too sexy for my shirt
So sexy it hurts
Slowly it circled the neighborhood before coming to rest at a small table, I mean branch outside the local nightclub and started to fluff up the goods.
And I’m too sexy for my plumes
Too sexy for my plumes
What d’ya think about that?
Little did RomEo know his bobber was already getting a nibble from a nearby table…err branch.
I’ve been waiting for so long
Now I’ve finally found someone to stand by me
We saw the writing on the mangrove
As we felt this magical fantasy
Well hi there little chickadee! What brings you to this nape of the woods, neck of the wape; how come you’re here?
Show me, show me, show me how you do that plume trick
The one that makes me scream, she said
The one that makes me sing, she said
Show me how you do it
And I promise you
I promise that I’ll fly away with you
I’ll fly away with you
Well, I just shift my weight to this foot, then I lift this other foot up to my head and Cat Scratch Fever it until it’s all sexy like, then…
They come runnin’ just as fast as they can
‘Cause every girl crazy ’bout a sharp-plummed man (Uh huh)
Ooooh baby, you make my feathers all a tingle!
White coat, black feet, white plumes, Cadillac
Yeah, RomEo’s a time bomb
White coat, black feet, white plumes, Cadillac
The RomEo’s a time bomb
Yeah, RomEos a time bomb
Damn, you ARE too sexy for your feathers!
I’m a Reddish Egret, you know what I mean
And I do my little turn on the branchwalk
Yeah, on the branchwalk, on the branchwalk, yeah
I shake my little plumes on the branchwalk
How about we blow this mangrove stand and go find us a secluded nest?
So tonight I’ll ask the stars above
How did I ever win your love?
What did I do
What did I say
To turn your angel eyes my way
All you birds
You can look all you like
But this Egret you see
She’s leavin’ here with me tonight
…and that’s the way it’s done all you RomEos looking for love in all the wrong places out there. There is love out there, you just have to know how to fluff those plumes ha!
Hopefully this encounter left you feeling a little better than the last one – no embarrassing talking to the wing here ha. By the way, if you caught all the songs and pop references used to construct this post you know your stuff (and our wedding song). Oh, and you are right Ted (link here), seeing one White-Morphed Reddish Egret is a treat, seeing two White Morphed REs is incredibly cool, but having the opportunity to see two sets of WMREs was definitely a highlight for our migration south!
Wildlife Intrigued 
Beautiful birds and great photos of them!
Too sexy for your camera.
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Hahaha, good one Anneli. Always fun taking shots from the catwalk..I mean boardwalk. Take care!
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*smiling*
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I’m jealous. Going out to find them in about an hour…Florida coast side.
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Good luck Ted! Maybe you’ll stumble on one of their dates and be able to let us know how the RE World Turns out there versus Texas.
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😂, no so sure either of us counts for the real world…. LOL
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Good point!
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Very beautiful bird photos, WOW!!! Congrats on so many wins with your dogs too, I love poodles and had them when I was a child. ❤️
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The boys love competing and mom has them trained up well for their events. Ruger is our first purposely bred performance poodle – incredibly strong for its size and was on agility equipment practically the day he was born. He is still clearing out some of the puppy brain fog, but looks like he is going to dominate for years to come. Raven is actually on the small side of the toys, but he can definitely hang with all the bigger dogs – slowing down a bit with his age, but likes to prance around the house with his latest medals to let the younger brother know who’s boss.. Ruger knows some day that top dog title is going to shift so grits his teeth and takes it for the moment hahaha.
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That is so sweet! My mom had a Tiny Toy Poodle, our other was Standard named Candy. I miss them!
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Quite the range there between the Toy and the Standard size – I prefer to have to pick up a dog and look them in the eye, versus one just standing up and putting its legs on my shoulders – kinda of loses that who is the master vibe hehehehe.
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Nice pics, Brian. Nice when subjects are preoccupied and pay no attention to those gawkers.
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Definitely! This is a highly visited area in South Padre so the feathered residents are very accustomed to having large black barrels pointed in their direction – so they can focus more on impressing the ladies! Appreciate you coming by Jerry, have a great weekend.
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Ruger is piling up the plates for a younger. Congratulations to both. That is a handsome devil of a Reddish Egret. I love those sexy lyrics.
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Ruger is way beyond our original already aggressive trajectory so we are incredibly happy with his performance already at his young age. Each day he improves a little more so no idea at this point how successful his career is going to be. He still has big shoes to fill as Raven is still getting it done even though he is definitely winding down as he is eleven now and the course clock is starting to be his biggest challenge. Guessing you had no problem with all those lyrical references. Take care and appreciate you coming by.
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I really enjoyed these excellent photos of the reddish egrets, Brian. Top-notch photos, fun lyrics, and talented pups!
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Thank you Jet! I always enjoy seeing the Reddish Egrets in the field, especially these rarer white morph variety. I think I might have listened to too much music growing up as I can’t get them out of my head whenever I write a post.. that and movie quotes. One of my best friends while we were still in the grind and I used to constantly challenge each other to movie quotes – problems is most of the movies we watched were pretty obscure so a lot of the people who overheard us would give us strange looks hehehe. Take care Jet and hope the weather is treating you right out there on the west coast.
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I’m so happy that I didn’t miss this post! I love the brags. Ruger and Raven are handsome, adorable and apparently talented!!
I enjoyed your Egrets Find Love at First Sight poem! I think that you and yours will certainly migrate back to Texas.
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Ruger and Raven are quite the handful (our furbabies), the worst thing about it they know they have an audience and have a bad habit of hamming it up and taunting the sad saps that have to compete against them (their words, not ours ha). You know love is in the air whenever two white morphed Reddish Egrets lock eyes, exchange sticks, fluff their plumes or whatever they do to express their fondness for each other hehehe. Will will definitely make our way back to Texas – we have to go out to the Northwest next for the agility nationals, but hoping we can get down there at some point after that – pretty much our home away from home these days! Take care Teri and glad you enjoyed the post.
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Is there a link to a utube video of their competition run? I would love to watch!
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I am hoping to get better videos from the upcoming nationals, but you can see a video of Ruger here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRKQiLPz9Y4 and one of Raven here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHxeRODda5o These were taken a few years ago when our youngest (Ruger) was just getting used to the ring – he is much faster now! Raven is a steady trooper.
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Love it! Ted gets some great shots of all of them as well. I can not wait for my Green and GB Heron to return to NH.
Love all those agility trials our old girl loved agility Brady adores us and hotrods 🙂
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Ted does great work down in the southeast – he is definitely more receptive to those Gators down there ha. Those agility trials are so fun – makes me smile watching all those dogs competing and loving every minute of it – admittedly more partial to our dogs, but I suspect that is true for all the dog owners hehehe. Thanks for dropping in Eunice and have yourself a wonderful rest of the week.
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You too, it’s been snowing all day.
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Fortunately, the white stuff has passed through now, but now dealing with 30-40 mph winds which might even be worse. Probably not out of the woods yet with March weather, but close and close to those wonderful Spring days.
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Yes hear the weather was bad we will get some more snow overnight and wind I have my 56 on a trickle charge I was hoping to take her for a spin 🙂
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Gonna have to keep those wheels under cover for a few more days at least – more snow today expected here, but hoping this is its last hurrah.
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You and me both tomorrow heavy rain blows in.
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South Padre inspires the hits again! Great photos! How interesting that the two white morphs would find each other… and I wonder if the white gene will “stick” with the youngsters. Kudos to your pups, and to Linda for her coaching!
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Good question regarding the white gene. I would suspect if two white morphs go together the likelihood is far greater that the gene variation would stick versus a white morph and a regular colored one and a lot more frequent than when both parents are typically colored – but absolutely no scientific basis for that reasoning beyond a hunch. Will definitely keep that in mind the next time I’m around a more knowledgeable birder and relay back the information. What I can say without a doubt is I have never seen a regular color RE and a white morphed coupled up – how about you? I’ll pass on your kudos to Linda and the Boys – she does say Ruger is making here go grey faster – apparently his strength and fearless disposition in the ring comes with an attitude hahaha.
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I’ve never seen a white+dark pairing, and never seen the offspring of a white+dark pairing, but All About Birds and Audubon both say that the birds do mate in mixed pairs, and that the morph trait follows genetic inheritance rules, but that there may be some other genetic dependencies that influence the dominant/recessive genetic preference for the light/dark morph.
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With you on not seeing the two together, but now keen to witnessing it in the field so will add it to my “to-shoot” list. I would have to guess two white morphs would produce a white morph or “the momma will have some explaining to do” ha. Intrigued to know if there is “skipped” generation genes in that it can show up down the line as long as the gene is in the line somewhere or luck of the draw – should have spent more time listening in my biology class rather than tossing frog parts on unsuspecting classmates – bad Bri!! Another question would be if you can detect the morph from the egg casing. I did find this site when I was researching – https://www.birdful.org/what-is-the-morph-of-the-reddish-egret/ which had some interesting detail like regional distribution: – Texas: Approximately 90% dark morph, 10% white morph
– Louisiana: Approximately 65% dark morph, 35% white morph
– Florida: Approximately 90% white morph, 10% dark morph
– Mexico: Primarily white morph along the Yucatán Peninsula; mix of morphs along the western Gulf Coast.
….but then I read this statement regarding behavioral differences: Foraging Technique: The dark morph tends to be more stationary and stalks prey methodically. The white morph is more active and uses rapid foot stirring to startle prey. I can say from all my field work with the Reddish Egrets the dark morph are NOT stationary by any means and as absolutely as spastic as the white morphs. Birds..so much still to learn ha. Take it easy Sam and thanks for the additional genetic information.
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Congrats to the boys and Mommy! Fun post with the Reddish Egrets, what beauties!
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Thank you Donna! They put a lot of work in day in and day out and always good to see the successful fruits of that labor. Right with you on the REs, such beautiful creatures, especially these rarer white variety. Funny thing is even though they might not have the traditional coloring, they definitely can’t hide as they maintain that spastic hunting behavior which gives them away instantly. Appreciate you coming by and have yourself a wonderful rest of the week!
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Congrats to the Pup! But mostly Congrats to Linda.
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