What the Heck?

This was an occasion when it was good to have a camera. You have to have evidence!

I was photographing egrets and shorebirds and took some photos of a juvenile Snowy Egret flying across the water. If it was an Osprey, I would think it was carrying its catch. But egrets don’t capture prey and fly off with it. They just swallow it right then and there. It seems that this egret somehow ended up with a mussel clamped to one of its toes. If only it could talk. Then we would know how the heck this happened. Although it might be too embarrassed to talk about it! My best guess it that it was probing the mud with its foot to find small invertebrates or stir up small fish and stuck the foot into the mussel. They do not eat shellfish so it wasn’t looking for it.

It flew away with the mussel firmly hanging on and I don’t know the outcome of the encounter. I assume the mussel would have eventually let go as it dried out. Well, this is something you don’t see every day!