The egret is not really our pet, but he/she visited for quite a while yesterday afternoon eating bugs around the vines on the fence.
We see egrets quite often in the neighborhood, but we've never had one to visit in our yard for such an extended period.
Look at those legs! They seem too fragile to hold the bird up, but they do the job. And the neck is long! The muscles in the neck must be quite strong.
What a lovely profile view. You'd think the birds would be gangly, but they're quite graceful and beautiful in flight. Pet Egret spread his/her wings once, but I was not quick enough to get a shot.
Pet Egret wanders toward our back door. I was excited, but I didn't want to get too close to scare the beauty away.
See Pet Egret behind the crepe myrtle tree? She/he is quite close to our back door now.
I was thrilled and excited by Pet Egret's extended visit, and I hope she/he found bugs that were tasty and satisfying enough to entice the beauty to make return visit. I have many more pictures, and I'd like to post them all, but I admit there's a sameness about some of them.
I'm filled with gratitude for this lovely gift of nearness from one of God's beautiful creatures.
We saw a great blue heron on a meadow one day that reached down and scooped up a mole. So egret may not be eating bugs, but small vertebrates as well.
ReplyDeleteAmazing they can get airborne, isn't it?
What a beautiful and graceful bird. I love egrets but rarely get to see them. Love great blue herons, too!
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous bird!
ReplyDeleteWe have squirrels in abundance, but I don't know that an egret could pick up a squirrel. Perhaps it's possible. A mouse maybe. We have those, too, and rats, but the sewer rats are as large as a squirrel.
ReplyDeleteWe see the blue herons fly over, but I've never seen one in our neighborhood on the ground.
For what it's worth, we have possums, nutria, raccoons, and armadillos in the neighborhood, too - a true wildlife sanctuary.
How nice to have this visit with the egret. They live around here too, but I've never seen one in the yard.
ReplyDeleteThere was a great blue in our old neighborhood that ate all the fish from neighborhood koi ponds. After it finished all the neighborhood ponds, it moved on to a nursery that sells koi and cleaned them out too.
My favorite time of day when we're at Mustang Island is early morning when the great blues are on the beach feeding. We can get quite close to them on our morning walks.
nutria? How exotic!
ReplyDeleteWe have possums, skunks, and the occassional fox or raccoon. We see coyotes around the neighborhood and an occasional bobcat at the fringes.
Small cats and dogs can have a low life expectancy around here.
Mike, if I saw a great blue in the yard, I'd probably explode from excitement. They are beauties.
ReplyDeleteIT, nutria are a nuisance. They're nothing but big rats. Eew! They have their place in the world, but I'd rather their place not be in my yard.
Don't blame you. What you need is some of our coyotes.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful surprise and such a great picker-upper for me after a cranky morning. Has your friend returned? We usually get a blue heron stopping by our pond the second week of May but it never stays for too long. So why are egrets and herons beautiful and flamigos just bizarre?
ReplyDeleteI used to work right next to an aquatic park visited by all manner of aquatic birds throughout the year. I so loved watching the egrets, and was nostalgic about that when I saw them in Louisiana last summer. They are stunning. Seeing one glide in the early morning over a mirror-smooth body of water takes the breath away. What a blessing this visitation was! Glad you could share it.
ReplyDeleteIf only I could hop over to your backyard Mimi. I'd show you what a long-legged bird can look like...
ReplyDeleteIT, regarding flamingos, the color is just too much for me. They look like elongated Easter chicks.
ReplyDeletePaul, I love most of the bird species. Our feeders attract many different varieties. I adore watching the hummingbirds come to feed. The other evening at dusk, I scared up an owl out of the grass just a few feet away. An owl in flight is a pretty grand looking sight, too.
Ostrich, you poor flightless bird, you'd scare the living daylights out of me if you appeared in my yard. I'm frightened by your picture each time I visit your blog.
You're not the first one to say that Mimi. But underneath all these feathers there lives a gentle egret struggling to get out...
ReplyDeleteCaminante, our pet has not been back. I think that egret won't be much of a pet.
ReplyDeleteOstrich, oh well then.... I never knew.
Do the hummingbirds ever fly into the house, zoom around the room, and then fly out?
ReplyDeleteNon, je n'egrette rien.
ReplyDeleteErp, no, and I hope that they never do. They'd probably fly into a window glass and get hurt.
ReplyDeleteOnce we had a small finch on the patio that kept banging into the glass door trying to get in the house. I thought the wee thing would hurt itself, but it seemed not to.
Brilliant, Paul. But she was a sparrow.
ReplyDeleteHummers come into our house frequently in the summer. (Anna's hummers are year-round in CA, we also get Allen's, and rufous flying through; up in the mountains we get calliopes and black-throats and Costa's in the desert). Believe it or not, I catch them bare-handed and release them to the outdoors.
ReplyDeleteIt is quite an experience to capture a hummer, with their fragile, tiny, fierce form, and feel their hearts pounding aginst my fingers and their frail little claws against my palms. And then I release them into the air.
It's kind of like teaching
Ruby-throated are common here, but we have Roufous, Allen's, and blue-throats, too.
ReplyDeleteIt gave me a frisson to think of catching one of the tiny, fragile birds. I'd be so afraid of hurting it. We have screens everywhere because of the bugs, so it would be a rare occurrence for a bird to come in. It's happened, though, but never a hummer.
I want one!
ReplyDeleteWell, you can't have mine, DP.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful gift. Even if your pet egret doesn't return, you have some wonderful pictures and memories.
ReplyDelete