Lena Chow was at the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve on the 27th November 2010 when there was a short downpour. “I noticed that instead of taking shelter, the various waders (greenshanks, redshanks, whimbrels, plovers) seemed to prefer standing in the pouring rain – I wonder why. A Great Egret (Casmerodius albus) was in fact actively hunting and stabbing its quarry in the shallows in thunderstorm – here’s a video of the hunting Great Egret.
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Gretchen
I wonder if the rain actually stirs up the fish and other possible prey, making this a better time for feeding for the egret. Or it may be that the rain doesn’t cause any advantage, and he is just continuing his normal activity. I’m impressed with how it seems that all the rain on the surface doesn’t cause any distortion problems – it looks like the bird is as accurate as usual in catching prey.