The ibises got to the tree first. The egret was late to the game.

Something disturbed these wading birds in the shallow waters where they were feeding on Monday at Savannas Preserve State Park. It may have been me, though I wasn’t very near them. I zoomed in to get these photos.

This is what it looked like when they all took off. I was the only person out there. It would be odd if I had spooked them, when ibises especially don’t seem to mind people.

There was a prescribed burn in this part of the Savannas recently.

White Ibises on a burnt tree trunk, the lone perching spot at the edge of wetlands. Their curved pink bills are distinctive.

The Great Egret gave up and flew on.

White Ibis are…

One of the most numerous wading birds in Florida, and common elsewhere in the southeast. Highly sociable at all seasons, roosting and feeding in flocks, nesting in large colonies. When groups wade through shallows, probing with their long bills, other wading birds such as egrets may follow them to catch prey stirred up by the ibises.

From this high spot they got a good look at things and soon decided to go back to the shallow waters.

The last bird was joined for a few moments by a Boat-tailed Grackle.