Reddish Egret Foraging Behavior

Reddish Egret Foraging at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve Huntington Beach, CA

Reddish Egret is a bird species I enjoy seeing when I visit family in Orange County, California. I saw my very first one in March of 2011. I've been fortunate enough to see them at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve each time I've visited the area since. My recent visit over Thanksgiving weekend allowed me to see multiple Reddish Egrets. Not one of them seemed to have an "off" button. Each appeared to be in some sort of hyper drive as they ran through the shallow water, spun themselves around erratically, flashed their wings, and snatched up tiny fish.

I decided to capture their behavior on video this time. While they are fine birds to observe in a photo, the photo just doesn't do justice to their foraging behavior. The video below is just under two minutes long and captures their typical hunting behaviors including one I hadn't noticed before. The bird paused to study one area of the water and then used its foot beneath the water to rustle up some fish that may have been hiding or somewhat obscured from its sight. Be sure to change the settings to High Definition if your video player doesn't default to HD.

If all the fish are as small as the one caught below it makes sense that these egrets appear to be in a feeding frenzy nearly every time I've observed them. That is more like an appetizer, not even a snack.

Reddish Egret Foraging at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve Huntington Beach, CA

Reddish Egrets are considered wading birds and are about about 30 inches long with a wing span of about 4 feet. They typically forage in shallow salt water and nest and roost with a variety of other wading birds. They breed along the coasts of Mexico and the southern coast line of the US, from Texas over to Florida. There is a white morph of the Reddish Egret, but they are not very common and are typically seen along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. From what I understand, the ones along the Pacific coast are all dark morphs, such as the one I've shared in this post.

Down Goes the Octopus: Western Gull Predation

Western Gull Consuming an Octopus at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach, CA

I had never thought of gulls as predators until I saw a Western Gull preying on a live octopus over Thanksgiving weekend in Orange County, California. The gull literally stalked its prey by cruising over shallow water at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach, California. It located, captured, and then moved a live octopus from the water to the nearby shoreline. That is when I realized what the gull was actually doing and thought, "Holy mackerel!  I've got to capture this on video!" I had no idea how long the process might last, but it felt like I was watching a rare moment unfold so I prepared to sit back and enjoy the show. Fortunately, I had no time constraints because my wife was enjoying a shopping day with her sister. I didn't have a tripod so I sat on the bank across the water from the gull and used my knees the best I could to hold my lens still while fully zoomed to 400mms. I believe it was about forty minutes from start to finish and it was worth every minute.

Two local bird watchers walked by as I was capturing the video and let me know that some locals will spend most of their day trying to see what I was witnessing. Apparently, this gull, and probably others like it, have been regularly observed preying on small water creatures such as octopuses and stingrays.

I learned a number of things from this experience:

1. Scavengers can also be predators.
2. Birds are smart about how they obtain and consume their food.
3. There are three acceptable forms for the plural form of octopus--octopuses, octopi, and octopodes. Octopuses is the correct standard English form given in the 1700s. About that same time grammarians wanted to standardize irregular English words to be more like Latin. Enter the form octopi. Octopus is actually of Greek origin. That is where we get the plural form of octopodes.
4. Octopi have four sets of arms. They have neither tentacles nor legs technically speaking. 
5. Apparently it is not necessary to wait thirty minutes after eating octopodes before going swimming. This gull swam immediately after eating with no ill side effects.

Here's a short video (three minutes) I created to document the process and share the experience with others. It is best viewed when set to 1080p HD. You can adjust that setting by clicking on the small settings (cog wheel) icon in the bottom, right-hand corner of the YouTube screen when it loads. You may want to pause then restart the video to ensure your are viewing with HD resolution. Enjoy!

I'll finish this post with an image that was captured about two gulps before the gull finished off the octopus. The gull and octopus experience was just one more to add to the long list of experiences that fuel my love for birds and nature and the places they meet.