Cade has been telling me about this all white heron down at the beach and the bay that he has seen on his travels. He thought maybe it was a young bird that had not yet developed its blue/grey coloring. Intrigued, I made my way to the beach this past Saturday to see if I could find it. You may know that the heron and I don’t get along. It doesn’t understand that I just want one good photo of it and I’ll stop stalking it. Heading down to the beach, I wasn’t hopeful.
I stopped and to take some photos of the pelicans on the shore. There are young ones there now but they having already reached their adult size but they have grey beaks and mostly white feathers. When I was done with them I looked North and there along the weeds was a tall white bird standing alone on the shore. I walked over expecting it to fly away as I got closer but it didn’t appear to be bothered by me at all so I sat down at the picnic table and got some photos of it.
It just wandered around, ocassionally catching what I assume were minnows or small bullheads in the shallow water. At one point it started walking towards me.
I watched it for some time hoping I might get a shot of it eating a fish but it just wandered around shore and just carried on like I wasn’t even there.
Some of the photos I found of the Great Egret showed it having bright orange feet. I am not sure if that comes at a certain age or if it is an identifying trait. This bird wasn’t at all threatened by my presence and just carried on like I wasn’t there, preening itself and wandering back and forth on the shoreline, in the water and back out again.
I did not notice a mate around but didn’t really look either. I must say that the Great White Egret, cousin of the blue heron, who has been teasing me for a photo for years is a much more cooperative bird.
CRUMBLING MEMORIES 