With all the stress in my life lately,

Maestro

I needed some downtime so I headed out to a rookery which curiously enough is located just west of downtown Dallas. It is located at the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center. I spent four hours there to unwind and take some pics. The only sounds I heard were the cackling of the birds and an occasional commercial jet.

Lots of nestlings as would be expected.


The above nestlings are cattle egrets I believe but at this age it is difficult to tell.

This great heron nestling is probably not long for this world as it fell from its nest. There is some predation by other birds and this guy looks to be one of the unfortunate ones. I felt sorry for it, but I just left alone and let Nature take its course.


This Little Blue Heron is one of the more aggressive types that will probably take a nestling if able.






Here it was getting upset with a cattle egret that was about its same size.


Calming back down a bit after hitting the cattle egret on its head a few times.


The graceful adult great egrets were there but usually hung out on the canopy of the rookery.



Here a great egret mingles with cattle egrets.


I found one spot in the rookery that gave me or rather the birds a good perch.

Juvenile Black Crowned Night Herons




Juvenile Great Egrets


It was a fun day that let me decompress a bit. As usual, I hope you enjoy the pics.

Harv

You managed a whole basketful of great shots here. Well done. I'm glad it helped to smooth the path through your day.

ShepsMom

Awww, i just love your little ones on the first few pics. Great set Stephen, all of the came out good!. Sorry to hear about stress in your life, that is why we take our cameras and heading out! Hope that helped

Ric Grupe

The Blue Heron with the ruffled feathers!

Good stuff, Stephen.

Maestro

Harv wrote:

You managed a whole basketful of great shots here. Well done. I'm glad it helped to smooth the path through your day.

Thanks Harv. It was relaxing.

Maestro

ShepsMom wrote:

Awww, i just love your little ones on the first few pics. Great set Stephen, all of the came out good!. Sorry to hear about stress in your life, that is why we take our cameras and heading out! Hope that helped

Oh yeah, it helped with the stress. I'm a school administrator by trade and we are gearing up for the beginning of school again. Besides work, I am going to geared up for fall migration. Texas is a great place to be during fall migration.

Shasoc

Nice variety of great shots, Stephen, particularly the frist two and the Blue Heron series.

Maestro

Shasoc wrote:

Nice variety of great shots, Stephen, particularly the frist two and the Blue Heron series.

Thanks Socrate. I was happy with those as well.