Great Egret

These pictures were taken on Bentsen Palm Drive, Mission, Texas on 17th January 2008. This year, the entire Rio Grande Valley was infested with mice and rats. Although an Egret's normal diet is frogs, fish and other insects, this year, with the abundance of rats and mice, it was not uncommon to see Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons catching mice and rats in a field. These pictures show a small rat being caught. The pictures should have been posted opposite in sequence (sorry). In the bottom picture it's quite easy to see why the Egret kept dropping the mouse: he was being bitten. He actually dropped him about six times before the rat became lifeless.