This photo was taken shortly after the eggs hatched. In this, and the next two photos, you can see the newly hatched chicks sticking their heads out between their mother's wing feathers.

In a few days they will be able to walk with their parents while they forage for food. They should be able to fly in about 4 weeks.

Canopy Fishing:

When the reddish egret hunts for food, it races back and forth in the shallow water, often spreading its wings wide and flapping them. It eats fish, frogs and crustaceans.

Sometimes it will curve its wings forward around its body to make a canopy that casts shade on the water. When prey swims towards the shady spot, it quickly snatches them up.

Source: Nature Works

The Snow Goose breeds in the Artic Tundra and migrates south for the winter. They travel about 3000 miles each way in large flocks. Their journey takes about 3 months to complete.

To see a Snow Goose in my area is quite rare. Normally they winter along the western Gulf Coast. About as far East as they go is generally the Mississippi Delta area.

I discovered this pair of Great Blue Herons in January of 2010. I thought is was quite early for nest building, especially since we were having an extremely cold winter. I observed this pair for a couple weeks as they built their nest. I was really looking forward to them raising their young under the watchful eye of my camera.

Sadly, after two weeks or so they abandoned the nest. I continued to check it daily for another week or two, but to no avail. I have no idea why they abondoned the nest, but I believe the cold weather could have been a factor.

This is a short composite of shots I took of a Belted Kingfisher hovering high above the water watching for a fish. I took several images and combined a few of them into this single frame.

The Osprey fishes in much the same way, hovering high above the water. Once prey is spotted, they dive in for the catch.

These were the best shots I could get on this day. The sky was full of Tree Swallows, but none ever landed.

Tree Swallows eat mostly flying insects. Most of their time is spent darting back and forth in the air scooping up any tasty morsel that happens to fly by. I consider myself lucky to have got any recognizable shots at all.