Centennial Park Egrets, Gulls, and Geese

The ducks at Irving's Centennial Park were terrific. I was pleasantly surprised to also see a couple of egrets along with quite a few ring-billed gulls and some domestic geese.

The resident Snowy Egret let me get closer than I expected.  Perhaps he was still trying to throw off the morning chill?

Seriously, I've never had a snowy let me get as close as this one did.  It was mid-morning and he didn't seem to be hunting yet, though he did start patrolling the shoreline later once the clouds had broken up a bit.

The Ring-billed Gulls, not surprisingly, were quite tame.  They seemed more perturbed when I passed them on the pedestrian bridge than seriously concerned.  I always assume a raised leg is a sign of being fairly relaxed.  At least, that's the only time I stand that way.

Like the snowy egret, the Great Egret population also seemed to equal one.  And also like the snowy, he didn't seem to mind people getting too close.  I did crouch behind a tree for this shot as as not to disturb him too much.

In mid-preen he seems to be taking a bow.

The gulls were the most dynamic species around.  This one landed in search of a meal.

He found something satisfactory, grabbed it, and was off.

The best thing about any wildlife that's fairly habituated to people is that you can get some tremendous close-ups, like this domestic goose who thought I was giving out food.

A young family came by to throw bread (I know, I know), which of course attracted quite a crowd.  I took the opportunity to get some flight shots of the gulls.  This approach is not quite as intimidating as a raptor would be.

A bird I still associate with the ocean flying past thick trees seems a little incongruous to me.

This one I really like, other than it looking like the bird only has one leg.

The longer I live in the Dallas area, the more little gems in suburban and even urban settings like Centennial Park I find.  And that's a very good thing!