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11/23/08
Tilapia for Dinner
Filed under: General, Birding & Outdoors, Florida & SE US
Posted by: Ken @ 8:49 pm

We are back in Florida after an enjoyable, but all too brief, visit with our Texas grandchildren and the New Mexico rosy-finches. This Wood Stork was resting on our back lawn.

Botox, anyone?

Wood Stork Portrait

The stork took turns standing on one foot, each time, oddly, grasping the other leg with its pink feet– first, with its left foot:

Wood Stork Resting Left Leg 20081122

Then, with its right foot:

Wood Stork Resting Right Leg 20081122

A Double-crested Cormorant ventured close to shore, then dove, swam underwater a great distance and out of sight:

Double-crested Cormorant 20081122

A Pied-billed Grebe also came in close. It appeared that the fishing was particularly good just off shore:

Pied-billed Grebe 20081122

This evening I was BBQ-ing a chicken on our back patio. I noticed that a Snowy Egret was foraging the lake’s edge, working its way nearer to our property. I quickly retrieved the camera and waited until it was about 30 feet away. As I was photographing it, it caught a good sized tilapia.

I was amazed at how the bird’s gape stretched to accommodate the fish, which kept wagging its body vigorously (click on the photo for more views):

Snowy Egret 4

Down the hatch!

Snowy Egret 7

It took the egret about 5 minutes to finish swallowing the struggling fish (Click for more views):

Snowy Egret 9

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