TITLE: Egret Grooming Ballet

Great White Egrets (Andrea alba) live their entire lives wearing what amounts to an elaborate formal ball gown. Cleaning these splendid costumes requires meticulous preening atop the tallest trees, clutching bare branches, often with only one talon, while wafting in stiff breezes and updrafts. A thrilling, beautiful grooming ballet.

AUTHOR: Caroline Peppiatt (United States)

I like to explore and photograph the swamps and rivers of Florida in my canoe. I am especially enamored of the great white egrets (Andrea alba) that are ubiquitous wherever I paddle. They live their entire lives (nesting, mating, hunting, feeding their young,) in what amounts to a formal ball gown. Cleaning their splendid attire requires meticulous preening which they do up in the tops of the highest trees, clutching a naked branch often with only one talon, buffeted by winds and updrafts. It is a thrilling, beautiful grooming ballet.