Reddish Egret at Fort De Soto

Reddish Egret

I told myself when I arrived at Fort De Soto that I wasn't going to do it. When I realized I'd forgotten to charge my camera batteries, and I had one battery dead and another one blinking "I'm going to die soon," I strengthened my resolve not to do it.  

But I did.

I photographed a Reddish Egret.  It was begging me, honestly. It was standing in pretty water in pretty light, and I tried walking by, I really did.  But it must have used it's jedi mind trick on me--"this is the bird you're looking for."  I knelt down, turned on my camera fired off about 10 shots, turned my camera back off to save my battery, and walked away.

It seems like there's always a couple of these beautiful herons at North Beach. You're pretty likely to see both the light and dark morphs, and I have a billion photographs of them, along with other photos taken on my coast. I didn't need this photo at all, but I confess I kinda like it.  And the Reddish Egrets of Fort De Soto will not be ignored--that's all there is to it.