A Wood Duck (Aix sponsa) sits on a rock in the Guadalupe River in the early morning.
A Great Egret (Ardea alba) stands among the wetland grasses in The Woodlands, Texas. Egrets are stealthy aquatic hunters eating everything from frogs, to snakes, to fish.
The Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) mainly eats fish and hunts by swimming and diving. Its feathers, like those of all cormorants, are not waterproof and thus spends time drying them out after spending time in the water. Once threatened by the use of DDT, the banning of this chemical has helped to increase numbers of this species. But traces of DDT still remain in U.S. waterways, even after several decades since it was banned.
