More Views From a Kayak

A flock of Great Egrets overhead is always a good start to a day.

This flock was heading south toward Little Monkey Cay as I was getting ready to kayak north into the marshes.

The only other abundant large white egret in this region of the world is the Snowy Egret. 

The Snowy Egrets have "golden slippers" (i.e., yellow feet), so because these birds don't have golden slippers and they do have black legs and feet, they are Great Egrets.  An uncommon (in this area, anyway) large white egret is the "Great White Heron" which is the white morph of the Great Blue Heron.  They have yellow legs and feet.  

In a nutshell there are 3 large white egrets/herons in Belize.  They can be identified on the basis of leg and foot color.  Great White Herons have yellow legs and yellow feet, just like their blue morphs do.  Snowy Egrets have black legs with golden slippers and Great Egrets have black legs and black feet.  There are other, smaller, white egrets around like Cattle Egrets and juvenile Little Blue Herons, but the size difference helps discriminates between them.

This day, I kayaked by myself into the marshes and explored a shrimp farm drainage canal.

For most if its length, the  canal was fairly wide with steep sides.  

In places it became narrow with overhanging vegetation.  I'll show some ferns and other plants in another post.  I paddled all the way to a small dam at the end of the canal before I turned around and came back.

Back in the marsh, I found my old friend the Yellow-Crowned Night Heron.

It kept its eyes on me as I glided past.

I got very close to it.

I wanted to get as close as I could with out making it fly off.  I think since I was by myself and hadn't been making much noise that it was not as uneasy as it was the other day when we had 2 kayaks and some quiet conversation going on.

While in the marsh and the canal, I did not hear a single human-made sound other than what I was making.  It was so serene and almost other-worldly; one could forget the existence of civilization (almost - except where did that high-tech camera, cell phone, and even plastic kayak come from? hmmm?).  As I got back to the open sea, I began to hear the occasional boat motor and I prepared to re-enter what we call the real world.  But I think the real world was what I left behind in the marsh ...

Kayaking with Dennis

Dawn came with a silky stillness in the primordial air.  

Gentle undulations rock the sea like a faint heartbeat, punctuated by the silent passage of egrets skimming the surface.

To the north, the sky clears as dawn breaks free of the low clouds and day begins in earnest.  

A day made for kayaking, slipping soundlessly along the water's surface, at one with the natural world.  Dennis and I head toward the sunlight in the north, easing in and out of passages amongst the mangroves.

We glide up to herons, like this yellow-crowned night heron.

Alert to our prescence, this yellow-crowned night heron is not unduly agitated.

OK, you are getting into my personal space here.

A little too close for comfort; I am out of here...

Way back in the marsh we saw a flash of peacock blues and greens.  What on earth?  It flew into the heavy mangrove tangle and walked from root to root, always keeping on the far side of vegetation, giving us only glimpses of a bird with a heron-like neck and bill but with a bulky, turkey-like, body.  It cautiously peeked out at us, seemingly as curious about us as we were about it. I got a couple of shots in hopes of being able to key it out later.  I succeeded in capturing the world's worst photos of the world's most beautiful bird - the Agami Heron.  Click here for the world's best photos of this fabulous bird.

I marked the tip of its beak with a purple arrow and its eye with a vertical arrow. Doesn't seem possible, does it?  But you can see it again in the next shot.

And again vertical arrow marks the eye and the horizontal one marks the tip of the beak.  The unusually long beak is one of the Agami's identifying characteristics.

Better luck in photographing a juvenile green heron.

The gloom of the tangled vegetation can't hide this lovely bird, but doesn't do much for the photo.  :-(

It very nicely cooperated and turned its streaked breast toward the camera.

We'll be back for more of that Agami heron and perhaps to see the green heron mature.