I came across this bull a while back on one of my walks. At that time, the area had not had rain for ages and the fields were dry and barren. I don’t know whether that was the cause for its demise or whether something else was happened. Either way, the cattle egrets weren’t too bothered, checking out the corpse for insects. The bull was gone the next day, and not because it got better.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘A Numbers Game.’ See more responses here. I put all my fingers and thumbs to work for my response, starting with ten Sheep in formation (and ten Cattle Egrets, too, as a bonus).
Next we have nine Spinner Dolphins playing, eight Wild Pigs foraging, seven Cattle Egrets heading to work.
Then there’s six Dung Beetles at work, five Black Triggerfish feeling blue, four Japanese White-eyes bathing.
And finally, three Horses watching, two Hawaiian Monk Seals resting, and one Pueo anticipating zero and lifting off.
This Cattle Egret appeared to have difficulty choosing which of several goats it should follow, in order to snap up bugs disturbed by their grazing. Or perhaps something else was going on. I could see its throat rippling, so it might have been calling, though I couldn’t hear any sound from where I was.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘White.’ See more responses here.
In the top photo, frothy surf barrels ashore at Upolu in North Kohala. Below that, a cattle egret surveys the scene in the middle of a water fountain. The third photo shows turbines at Hawi Wind Farm against a backdrop of snowy Mauna Kea. And the bottom photo features a bee collecting on a Maiapilo flower.
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Things that are white.’ See more responses here.
The top photo features a white catamaran with white sails, cruising on a white-capped ocean. The second photo is a cattle egret in a water fountain. The third photo shows a thick layer of white clouds between the Big Island and Maui, as seen from Mauna Kea.
Cattle egrets will follow anything that stirs up insects and other small creatures in the grass. Typically, they hang out with cattle, horses and sheep, but they’ll also flock to the scene when anyone fires up a lawn mower. They trot along behind the mower, gleaning tasty tidbits from among the grass clippings.
It’s not all easy pickings though. As in the top photo, they have to be alert for when the mower swings around and roars back toward them.
This week’s Friendly Friday challenge theme is ‘Odd Couples.’ See more responses here.
It’s common to see cattle egrets in the company of cattle and yet they still make an odd pairing – the bulky, stolid cow or bull and the slender, flighty cattle egret. The benefits for the cattle egret are clear. They catch insects and other prey disturbed by the grazing cattle (or horse, sheep, goat, etc.). But they also remove flies and ticks from the cattle themselves, which also benefits the cattle.
The cattle also don’t seem to mind being used as a perch. I imagine the egret above giving directions: ‘take a left up ahead buddy.’ The one in the middle is switching allegiances. Below, gotta find someplace with a view when in the tall grasses.
Today we tackle the thorny question of what cattle egrets do when there are no cattle (or horses, or sheep, or goats, or lawn mowers) around. They accompany these various animals and machines to feast on insects and small animals disturbed by the grazing.
When they don’t have others to stir up these things, they do it themselves. This group of cattle egrets methodically combed a scrubby field, eating as they went. As they moved across the field, birds from the back would fly forward and take up their position at the front. By the time a line of birds ended up at the back of the bunch, they’d probably scoured their section of field of easy pickings, so they leapfrogged to the front again.
When they reached the fence at the end of the field, they moved higher on the hill and began the whole process again. Finally, they reached the top of the hill and, after a while took off, first in ones and twos, and then in greater numbers until they had all gone.
Graham's Island 