Annual Feast on Frogs

Nearly every day I drive by a small wetland area that’s one of my favorite local photography sites. Every spring the singing of hundreds of male frogs, directed at attracting a mate, also serve as a dinner call to herons, egrets, and other wading birds. If the wind is from the right direction you can and hear them from as much as a ¼ mile away. I imagine the birds can hear it from a much greater distance.

The Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets that are attracted by the ruckus are some of my favorite birds to watch and photograph due to their hunting behaviors. Those behaviors include great patience often standing still for many minutes at a time, a lot of active listening, and the ability to take quick action when the opportunity for a meal presents itself. If you are in tune with these behaviors you can take a relaxed approach and only be in photographer mode when you anticipate that the action is going to start.

This past Friday night I only had to wait about ten minutes for this Great Egret to show up.

The sheer volume of food that this bird consumed is amazing. Over the course of an hour, I watched him catch and eat enough frogs to fill a gallon freezer bag. The fact that this bird could fly away after such a feast is evidence of the power that these big birds have.

There’s probably only a few weeks left to this annual feast. It gets more fun to watch as the frogs grow in size. What do you think, do they really taste like chicken?

Thanks for visiting, hope you enjoyed.