A First Last Look at the Malibu Egrets...

Once again I have got very behindhand with this blog: to begin with, I was not well during my last week in Los Angeles, so was immersed in final preparations for my departure (including having to procure an Emergency Passport on the day I left, mine having expired!). Since arriving back in the UK I have been slowly adjusting to life here- always I seem to have so much I want to do in the US when I have to uproot myself...

In the next few posts I will probably be writing about some of my US experiences as well as my new UK ones.

To start with, I will return to my Malibu Egrets who I last visited a week before I left. First, here are two of the parent birds sharing the nest after copulation:


And here is a last image of the only fledgling I was able to see (without climbing the tree!), being cared for by its parent:


And now for some crazy Egrets: this male- after visiting his mate- retired to a branch and proceeded to exercise his legs:


Then, he got in a rage when another male bird visited an adjoining nest; here he is doing a fantastic display of his wonderful tail-plumage, to warn off the other bird:



Here he "poses" on nearby branches:




And here is a final look at this nest through the tracery of the Ficus' branches- reminiscent of the architecture of a Medieval Church: