And the story goes ...

21 March 2007: While we were staying in Panama City Beach, FL, I watched these two Great Egrets build their nest from scratch on the rookery in Alligator Lake in St. Andrews State Park. As soon as it was strong enough to hold the female, she laid on it and soon after there were blue-green eggs in the nest. I could see three eggs with my binoculars, but in this photo you can only see two of them. The parent egret is turning the eggs over with its beak. I worried about this because if I could see the eggs, predators could also see the eggs and this nest was built on the left edge of the rookery so any eggs or hatchlings would surely fall into the water and become alligator snacks. Over the next few days, the new parents began building up the walls of the nest to better contain the eggs and hatchlings. The eggs will hatch in about one month, then the parents will feed their babies for about two months. Too bad that I won't be there to see the parents feed their chicks and to see the chicks fly away on their own. Click on the image to view more photos of waterbirds in our online galleries hosted by Smugmug.com.