Monday, January 28, 2013

Cattle Egrets Next to Stuff

Basically - here's the deal. Cattle Egrets, Bubulcus ibis, are reknowned for following large mammals and feasting on the stuff they disturb. Traditionally it is cattle (hence the name) but it can be other stuff.....like this White Rhino.

cattle egret and white 
rhino

Being crafty opportunistic little rascals, they'll follow pretty much anything and anything be it a common or garden field cow or one of the world's rarest mammal or even some dude on a tractor. Being crafty and opportunistic they've also managed to extend themselves around the world onto every continent and into all sorts of situations. I've seen (and photographed) them next to all sorts of weird creatures and items (including a mobile bbq chicken truck) and I reckon you may have too.....So I'm planning on starting a new blog to which all can contribute: Cattle Egrets next to stuff.

If you have a photo of a cattle egret stood next to, following, riding or chillaxing in the general vicinity of either an animal, person or bit of machinery either email it to p dot taihaku at gmail.com or tweet me @twaihaku and we'll get this thing up and running.

They don't have to be amazing shots and I'll of course give you credit and a link back to your blog or twitter if you have one. I'd also appreciate a little background (what it's doing, where it's doing it)

My goal is to get photos from as many different people of cattle egrets next to as many different things in as many different countries as possible. I'm genuinely fascinated to see how many the nature blogging community can come up with - OK, so this isn't high falluting citizen science but hey, lets have some fun with this and see what we can come up with.

2 comments:

Lucy Corrander Now in Halifax! said...

The results, no doubt, will be fun.
We have no cattle egrets in Dorset but we do have the little variety.

Sandcastle Momma said...

That sounds like a great idea and I can't wait to see all of the pictures. Unfortunately, we have no cattle in my neck of the woods. We do have herons, pelicans and osprey though lol