Snowy Egret Perched at the Rookery in Breeding Plumage

There is a particular kind of frustration that comes with being in the right place but never quite at the right angle. The White Ibis had mostly gone — off somewhere to fish, I assumed — and the Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets that remained were busy with their own business. Nest building. A stick here, a twig there. Patient, purposeful, largely indifferent to me standing above them on the bridge. The Snowy Egrets were the awkward ones. Every time I raised the camera, one would shift just far enough behind a branch to ruin the shot. The Glossy Ibis arrived in a flock, which felt promising, and then landed exactly where the foliage was thickest. Of course they did. I could make out some Yellow-crowned Night Herons lower down in the shrubs, but the angle from the bridge was wrong for everything except frustration. The walkway leading down to the area below was closed for repairs, which probably would have solved the problem entirely. The one frame I came away with was this Snowy Egret, perched on a bare branch, feathers slightly ruffled, yellow feet gripping the wood. It was not the shot I was hoping for when I arrived. It rarely is. But there is something honest about that — the bird in the moment it allowed, not the bird I had planned to photograph.