Snowy Egret Cowichan Bay

Early June 2022 a Snowy Egret dropped into the bay for a few days. It was very successful fishing in shallow tidal pools.

Snowy Egret

On Vancouver Island! Very rare.

Snowy Egret

A graceful flyer.

Going for it.

The Snowy Egrets use their feet to disturb fish around them and then use their wings to coral it forward. Very high energy birds. I would guess this bird ate 3 dozen fry in 2 hours. Probably a good thing we don't normally have them here we would run out of fish.

Snowy Egret

It looked as if the bird was doing an abstract dance it would dodge one way then in the same second it was turned and shot off in another direction. A very agile bird and an excellence hunter.

Snowy Egret

This bird can fish, it got one every couple of minutes—a totally different fishing style than the Great Blue Herons.

Flipping fry.

A pleasant surprise to see this rare bird (for our area) on Vancouver Island.

Fish Fry with a side of greens.

Snowy Egret