Supper at the lake

An egret returns to his perch after spearing his supper at Saracen Lake in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

Click on the sunset to see the start of this story

While shooting a sunset at Saracen Lake
I noticed an egret on the dock — farther away than I would have liked. As I quickly snapped on a long lens he swooped down and away from the dock bannister at which time I uttered some rather derogatory utterings regarding his family heritage. To my grateful surprise, he returned to the bannister with a freshly speared fish in his beak. His next issue was unspearing his supper, picking it back up and getting it turned in the right direction to swallow.

The egret hops down to the dock to start the ticklish project of getting his supper pointed in the right direction. He can do this over water, but he knows that the probability of success increases precipitously if he engages the process on a solid footing.

The egret jettisons his catch. Now he has to grab his supper again head first to facilitate swallowing his catch.

The egret misses the flopping fish on his first try. The fish, though mortally wounded, still has some remaining survival instinct and energy.

Success at last. Bro. Egret has his fish again, nearly ready for supper.

Dinner is served. The fish is now in the right direction and is now reclassified as “food.”

Even vehicular traffic does not disturb supper.

A bit of after supper preening and cleanup.

Enjoying the view and relaxing after supper. And on the lookout for dessert.

Before I went to the lake to shoot the sunset and ultimately the bird, I decided to take advantage of the favorable lighting conditions and shoot the Simmons First building here in Pine Bluff. It is the tallest building in town and is home to the Simmons First banking operations. They are good corporate citizens and have been in business for 100 years and some change. Shooting the building under good light has been a long term “gonna” for yours truly and today was the day.

The lighting was perfect and I fulfilled a long simmering desire to photograph the Simmons First building here in Pine Bluff. I would have preferred that the construction equipment not be in the picture, but lighting conditions are out of my hands, so we accept the archival nature of the image.

Today was one of those “unexpected pleasure” days. I trust that you will experience a few of those in the next few days.

Thanks for dropping by,

Joe Dempsey,
Weekly Grist for the Eyes and Mind

http://www.joedempseycommunications.com/
http://www.joedempseyphoto.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

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