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These shots were taken at a rookery in Louisiana in 2011. The first shot is of the Cattle Egret reaching down to pick up a stick for the nest he and his partner are building. He then takes a step with the stick he has found and then flies off to join his mate.
Hello Allen,
So glad you are back with another Story Sequence, it looks like our new Forum is graced with more and more images documenting behaviour of various species, this is just wonderful!
I notice with great delight that your patience paid off again - love the environment here and this lovely, pristine white bird with its impressive wingspan, somewhat precariously hovering over water and picking up nesting material.
I was once told it is the male who builds the nest before pairing up with the female, the nest usually lined up with fresh leaves and soft material that dries up and forms a solid and reliable cup - shaped structure.
Lovely image of this bird taking off to end the sequence with - legs stretched out, wings extended - I also notice your subject already displays those beautiful long feathers on its back, they are usually raised when courting the female:)
Thank you once again Allen, images well processed and presented, a pleasure to view:)
PS Did you choose a larger crop for the second image on purpose? I feel it gives more prominence to this particular frame and I tend to spend more time viewing image no.2:) Not really an issue, just an observation - perhaps we should look at this in the future when planning a Sequence, shape and size of images tend to play an important role and we could use this to help the viewer see/understand the "plot" better?
Wishing you a wonderful week-end,
All beautiful as standalone images. I like the story and that nice dark background.
Hi Gabriela and Jackie, thank you for commenting...
Gabriela, your comment about the male doing the nest building got my curiosity up because what I observed at the rookery was one bird bringing sticks back to the other bird to construct the nest. I checked online at Cornell's All About Birds and found this: "Both sexes build the nest, but the female does most of the construction with materials brought by the male." And this is consistent with what I saw on that trip. The photo I am including shows this behavior.
As far as the crop of the second image, I processed these shots independently of each other back in 2011 without regard for a story telling sequence so any effect here is accidental.
Thanks again, I will share other sequences as I find them in my archives or current work...
Allen
Dear Allen,
It gives me great joy to view those images, including your last post - it looks like the male is gathering material and the female helps with building? Makes sense to me:w3
Cannot thank you enough for your contribution, motivates me to open the books and learn more - thank you again Allen!!!
Have a super evening,
Hi Allen
Nice sequence! Well exposed with good detail in those white.
Well captured and processed!
