arvel's Favorites

We were walking around Rodeo Lagoon and my fiancé saw orange/orange behind a couple trees. He(?) proceeded to stay back and caught a mole which he played around with. He did approach cars briefly, and fortunately everyone stopped and then he ran off behind the buildings and we did not see him again. At this time, I did not know about hazing and am so glad I have learned!
Shot with 400mm tele lens and cropped.

This is an interesting story with a happy ending. My friend David Ferry and I were driving along Hwy 87 at 60 mph near Crystal Beach, Texas, when I glimpsed what I thought was a Least Bittern standing on the very edge of the road with cars whizzing past. I made a U turn and went back where we indeed found a Least Bittern, resting back on its tarsus joints within inches of passing traffic. I picked up the bird and we stood on the side of the road to examine it. My best guess is that (1) it took a glancing blow off a car windshield, perhaps, or (2) It was totally exhausted from migrating across the Gulf of Mexico. It did not seem to be badly injured and its wings did not seem to be broken. Rather than just leave it here on the road to be crushed and killed I decided we would take it to a nearby marsh area off the roadway where it could die in peace and dignity. So we drove off with Dave holding the bird in his lap and heading to a marsh well off the road where I know Least Bitterns were present. We put the bird down on the edge of the marsh and it just stood there looking at us. I was about to just drive away and let nature take its course, but decided to take a few more shots of the bird. I got down low to the bird's level and it went into the characteristic bittern pose by stretching its neck high and trying to look like a swaying bit of marsh grass. It kept a watchful eye on me from both sides of its raised bill and image 1 shows this action. The bird then started slowly walking away from us. I bent down to take another shot and the bittern took flight and flew out into the marsh and out of sight. I choose to believe it recovered and is doing well.

near Crystal Beach,
Galveston Co., Texas
26 April 2018

I have more photos of this fight to exhaustion if a project is interested. Both the dominant bird and the defeated bird eventually separated and both appeared to have survived with only momentary periods of exhaustion for both where they would feed at the same feeder for a moment then resume their dispute. This was in a residential backyard with plenty of food sources, both natural and hummingbird feeders.