Great Egret

I promised yesterday that I would show you some of the pictures of the birds I took when I found a new boardwalk nature preserve. I decided not to wait to show you my absolute favorite. I have many more pictures that are every bit as good, so you may like some of those even better.

This bird is a Great Egret. Of course I'm never one hundred percent sure of the identity of any of these animals. This one is very similar to the Snowy Egret, which is what I thought it was at first. The snowy egret is supposed to be more plentiful where I live so it's an easy mistake to make.

There are some distinct differences though. The great egret's bill is yellow like the one in my pictures. It also has black legs and feet. The snowy egret's bill and legs are both black, while their feet are yellow. These egrets are also both a kind of heron.

Speaking of herons, do you remember my last pictures of a heron? I was after a great blue heron, but I was having great difficulty with my camera at the time. The pictures turned out very odd, but as you can see I have improved things greatly since then. Great!

I took very many pictures of this big bird, but unfortunately I'll only be able to show you these few that you see here. If I show you too many I will run out of space and I won't get to show you any more at all. That's a small part of the reason I stretched out my raccoon story to a fun trilogy.

You know, while I was watching this great egret it decided to fluff itself up until it looked like a great puffball. It was a wonderful sight, and I have some of it here for you. While it's not all puffed up like that its tail feathers hang down and blow in the wind.

These flowing misty white feathers made the bird look like a good spirit when the wind blew in the evening light. It seemed almost magical at times. This white bird seemed to glow in contrast to everything around it in the fading day. I don't know how many more ways I can describe the wonder I felt at seeing it perched majestically in the middle of the pond.

This just goes to show you what you can find if you just look around long enough. Of course I had the help of my new GPS, but I've seen this place before without it. I find many of these places just from driving around. Even looking out your own back window can sometimes bring you wonders of the natural world.

I'll be back tomorrow with another story and more pictures. I'm still falling behind here though. My backup computer just died on me, so that is taking up some of my time. I can rebuild it. I have the technology. Hiking and my all time favorite thing, sleeping also seems to take up more time. It seems I have more time lately but I'm having more trouble using it efficiently.

Okay, that's enough of me for now. See ya!