Doug,

Thanks for the photos. I can see from looking at your egret photo that the upper part of the legs could easily be seen as yellow under some lighting and photographic conditions. It doesn't seem to be pigment, but its composition is puzzling. Perhaps it is dried mud/algal debris from wading up to its belly or walking through muddy vegetation. Don't know why it wouldn't be on the feathers as well, though, other than that they do preen their feathers but probably not their legs.

Dennis Paulson
Seattle


On Mar 26, 2011, at 12:00 PM, tweeters-request at mailman1.u.washington.edu wrote:

> Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2011 23:45:52 -0700
> From: "Doug" <subscribe at bodyresults.com>
> Subject: [Tweeters] Nisqually 3/23 - Great Horned Owl chicks and Egret
> Close up
> To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Message-ID: <006501cbeb81$747c68d0$5d753a70$ at com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> Hello All,
>
>
>
> My wife and I had a good visit to Nisqually on Wednesday. We were fortunate
> to have other birders point out the nest of the Great Horned Owls. Some of
> you might be interested in pictures of them. They are not the easiest to get
> good pictures as they are tucked back away a good distance. Also, we had
> some nice close ups of the Great Egret. I posted one image with a close up
> view of the legs so you can see the coloring. I didn't see any yellow on
> this one.
>
>
>
> http://s1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd482/schurmanbirder/Nisqually/
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Doug Schurman
>
> Seattle (Olympic Hills area)



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