It all started when one Great Egret flew into a section of Raymond Pool close to another. The Egret that was there originally, obliged the intruder by flying to another position a hundred feet away. The intruder flew over to the Egret’s area again. Again, the original Egret moved to am alternative spot, and again the intruder flew in to claim that spot as his own. This kept on happening until there were three Egrets in the same spot and then the grunting and squawking and displays of bravado took on a more dire tone with all three leaping into the air at the same time to try and chase the other two from the spot. Eventually all three found spots an equal distance from one anther and there seemed to be an uneasy calm in the waters once again.
From my afternoon trip to Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge outside of Smyrna, Delaware on Saturday 7-25-2009. This was the third stop of the day and my third state after having started the day at the New Jersey Festival of Hot Air Ballooning in Readington, NJ and then a trip to the docks in Philadelphia to shoot the U.S. United States ocean liner that has been tied up there for years awaiting an unknown fate of either scrapping or renovations and preservation.
For more information on the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge, visit their web site at http://www.fws.gov/northeast/bombayhook/.
For more information on Great Egrets, visit the Cornelll Lab Of Ornithology.
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