NATURE CLICKS #550 - REDDISH EGRET

Reddish Egret, Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, Huntington Beach, California

Local people told me in the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve during my recent visit a couple weeks ago that three Reddish Egrets reside in the wetlands. I saw finally two of them and this one here presented itself in great side light. I always have seen the dark morph of this bird but a white morph exists also in other areas of the country.

If a body of water is between your camera and the bird and you have maxed out the focal length of your lens, in this case 600 mm, the only option to get closer is to use the teleconverter. I did that for the second photo with the Sigma APO 1.4x, which extends focal length to 850 mm, but finally still decided to crop both pictures a little.

Nikon Z6II, Nikon FTZ adapter, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM S, Sigma APO Teleconverter 1.4x EX DG, CALUMET CK8156 tripod, Induro GHB2 gimbal head,

NATURE CLICKS #353 - REDDISH EGRET

Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, Huntington Beach, California ---------

Almost every birder and photographer I met in the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve three weeks ago asked me, did you see a Reddish Egret? Yes, I did, I saw two of them! It wasn’t my first sighting of this bird and I have posted here in the blog about it exactly five years ago. I learned that a pair of Reddish Egrets had raised their offspring in the wetlands this year and people were just eager to see them.

I admit that this image was shot in “DX-mode” and in addition it is cropped. Unfortunately it is also not real sharp, with other words, a larger print is out of question. I had no chance to get closer during the short time I had the egret in front of my lens. There was too much water between me and the bird. If it was for a Great Egret, or even a Snowy Egret, I would not post this image here but this bird deserves an exception. Southern California is about as far north this egret goes on the west coast. The Reddish Egret is North America’s rarest heron and is usually confined as a breeder to the Gulf coast (source: National Geographic Complete Birds of North America).