Young Snowy Egret, and the Curious Behavior of Crows toward a Turkey Vulture

Snowy Egrets commonly breed along the Atlantic coast from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico and Central America. Post breeding, young individuals often disperse further inland, and one such rare visitor turned up this morning feeding along an overgrown island in the West River.

 

Great Egrets are common migrants here and one happened to be in the vicinity. This photo shows the difference in size.

Yesterday morning, walking along the same trail with the river on one side and a harvested corn field on the other, I saw  a flock of crows, which was feeding on the corn field, rise into the air with a great deal of agitated cawing to follow a large bird flying overhead. Soon the majority settled into a tree by the river, but several birds continued the pursuit until they all disappeared from view. Typical mobbing behavior, I thought, as I was trying to fire off a series of shots to catch the action. Looking at the photos at home however I discovered that the large bird was in fact a Turkey Vulture.

Crows usually don't feel threatened by TVs and don't waste their time chasing them off. So what made them go after the TV here? Young crows perhaps playing a game of pursuit? I tried to find something on Google but nothing turned up. So if one of my readers has insight into the behavior I'd love to hear it.
 
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White Ibises, Tricolored Herons and more at Tigertail Beach on Marco Island

I am still trying to catch my breath from our trip to SW Florida and sorting through hundreds of photos. We stayed in Naples and while my husband was busy preparing his parent's condo for sale, he graciously ceded our rental car to me for trips to the regional birding hotspots.

I arrived at Tigertail Beach on  Marco Island at low tide. The beach faces a tidal lagoon rimmed with mangrove where many wading birds were foraging for food   I took lots of photos but will have to be happy with showing at most two of each species. The light wasn't perfect as it came from the wrong side so that most birds ended up being back lit.

White Ibises resting near the beach

Tricolored Herons

These are very active birds; they hop and jump and twist in pursuit of their prey.

Reddish Egrets

Juvenile Snowy Egrets

A single Brown Pelican, of which many more later in subsequent posts.

An Osprey carrying food back to the nest

where its mate was waiting

I almost feel sorry for this Atlantic Needlefish, looking surprised at being so suddenly plucked from the ocean. Does it know where it's heading?

Well, enough for today. To be continued.......