Reddish Egret + Sunrise + Mud

Made another trip to the local mudflats yesterday and the third time was the charm for last week.  On my last trip, missed a spectacular sunrise that was already up by the time that I drove onto the beach.  This time, decided to get up at 3:00 a.m. to make it onto the 5:00 a.m. ferry, which turned out to be a very good move.

Found a reddish egret in the same location as previous visits, along with the mud being exposed at low tide.  Went down on my knees in the mud to confirm the best spot to lay down.  There were some wade fishermen walking behind me on the beach that reacted when I laid down in the mud.

Before the sun came up, this white morph reddish egret landed right in front of me.  He ended up walking to my left near where the sun was going to rise. 

Once the sun started to pop, had to shift my position to the right to get the sun directly behind the egret, which was easier said than done.  Didn’t want to get up as it could spook the bird, so did a shuffle with my elbows and knees.

Ended up being an amazing time with lots of great photo ops with this egret, some of which might be contest worthy.

Had to take a couple of cell phone shots of my mud bogging experience.  It’s a dirty job but somebody has to do it.