By gosh, I think I've got it! If I hop around in circles, change directions suddenly, and flop my wings up and down like I do when a bee stings me, these tasty little fish panic and hide in the mud. Zap! I got another one.
This is the comical feeding strategy of the reddish egret, seen here resting between dances in a tidal lagoon at Boca de Solidad on the west coast of Baja California. We laughed as we watched this bird performing its strange ritual, which is not copied by any other members of the heron family in the Americas. As we walked the lagoons and climbed the slip faces of spectacular barchan sand dunes, others of our group were in the Zodiacs. They were enjoying encounters with gray whales in the tidal waters of Boca. It would be our turn later in the morning. We could wait…the weather was perfect for all kinds of activities in this wild desert by the sea.
