Snowy Egret Skirmish

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It is not unusual to see Snowy Egrets fighting for breeding territories and I observed their territorial disputes several times during my recent visit to Bolivar Peninsula and the Smith Oaks rookery at High Island, TX. But, only once did the disputes occur close enough to where I was stationed for me to try to photograph the behavior. The 9 images I captured of that skirmish are shown below.

Carla Brennan (https://carlabrennan.com/) posted photos of Snowy Egrets having a territorial dispute and described the experience as being "like watching angels break out into a fistfight."

Click on each image for a slightly larger view.

Snowy Egrets - Smith Oaks Rookery, High Island, TX - April 2021

The photos were all taken with an Olympus E-M1X camera, a 150-400mm f4.5 TC lens @ 360 - 419 mm at 1/2000 sec at f/5.6, ISOs 320-640.

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David Sparks

I retired in 2005 after 40 years of research and teaching at the University of Alabama in Birmingham (24 years), the University of Pennsylvania (8 years) and the Baylor College of Medicine (8 years). Photography is my retirement hobby.

Nature photography, especially bird photography, combines a number of things that I really enjoy: bird-watching, being outdoors, photography, travel, messing about with computers, and learning new skills and concepts.  I now spend much of my time engaged in these activities.

David Sibley in the preface to The Sibley Guide to Birds wrote "Birds are beautiful, in spectacular as well as subtle ways; their colors, shapes, actions, and sounds are among the most aesthetically pleasing in nature."  My goal is to acquire images that capture the beauty and uniqueness of selected species as well as images that highlight the engaging behaviors the birds exhibit.