2008 Snap & Parting Shots

Photo: QUENTIN ROUX

A Great Egret uses a slight puff of wind to touch down at Tigertail Beach on Marco Island in anticipation of an early morning snack. The bird, close to extinction around 1900 because its plumes fetched good money, recovered in numbers and is the symbol of the Audubon Society. The Great Egret loves fish, but also settles for crustaceans, frogs, salamanders, snakes, and aquatic insects. It likes to winter, too, in the south.