Feeding activity of birds occurs mostly on the east side of the jetty because the water is much deeper on the west side. Thus, the lighting is best for photographing bird activity in the late afternoon when the sun is in the west. On November 21 2016 low tide was in the late afternoon, the birds were actively feeding, and I was able to capture the activity of a Great Egret mimicking the “canopy feeding” antics of a Reddish Egret. The bird was racing back and forth in the shallow water, often making short flights in chase of its potential prey. At other times the bird was more stationary - spreading the wings to cast a shadow over the water to attract small fish or other prey. A sample of that activity is shown below. The slide show runs continuously, so be sure to watch the section where a second Great Egret makes an attempt to steal the fish captured by the first egret.
Photos were taken handheld with a Nikon D500 camera and 500mm f/4 lens with 1.4x teleconverter attached. The first photo in the slide show was taken at 5:02:33 PM and the last one at 5:05:50 PM.
