Herons, Egrets and more: Ft Desoto County Park: 11-3-16 - Part 1

What a nice start to the day.

We were able to show the English visitors all of our common herons and egrets except the Green Heron.

Great Blue Heron

Note the translucent nictitating membrane is now covering his right eye.

Reddish Egret

Our rarest egret; while populations have been somewhat recovering during the past decades, this species is now threatened by the degradation and destruction of its preferred coastal habitat.


Great Egret

Cattle Egret

Little Blue Heron

Tricolored Heron

The only dark colored heron with a white belly. 

Snowy Egret 

There were so many baitfish on the surface that the Snowys were snatching the fish while on the wing.

Mourning Doves

Both males and females secrete a substance from their crop that is high in protein and fat.  Called crop milk or pigeon milk, it resembles and smells like cottage cheese and is fed to young birds.