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Daily Bucket: A Great Egret Catches Some Lunch [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-30
The Daily Bucket is a regular series from the Backyard Science group. Here we talk about Mother Nature in all her glory, especially the parts that live nearby. So let us know (as close as you are comfortable) where you are and what's going on around you. What's the weather like? Seen any interesting plants, bugs or critters? Are there birds at your feeders? Deer, foxes or snakies in your yard? Seen any cool rocks or geological features? Post your observations and notes here. And photos. We like photos. :)
While walking in the Largo Nature Preserve in Tampa Bay a few days ago I happened to come across this scene:
At first I could not make out what this Great Egret had, then he tossed it around a bit and it became obvious that it was a small turtle. It looked too big and too early in the year to be a new hatchling and is probably a yearling, and it looked to be already dead, or at least it was not noticeably moving. It also looked to be too wide for the Egret to swallow, but I have seen them put down some amazingly big fish, so I knew he’d probably manage. And he did, after about ten minutes of tossing and turning.
And speaking of youngling turtles …
A couple weeks ago I did a Bucket about a Peninsula Cooter that I had seen and photo’d digging a nest to lay eggs. I checked up on it while I was at the Preserve … and it has been dug up and destroyed:
The empty shells are gone too, indicating that it was a while ago (lots of things will eat the shells for their calcium).
Not unexpected, really. The failure rate for turtle nests is frightfully high—and she had not picked a very good spot to begin with, right there in the open.
Anyway…
Now it’s your turn. What’s up in your neck of the woods?
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