Photo by Greg Frucci.
Shh. I come in peace. I ask for peace. Let us just stare at each other for a while.
I come from the clan of Egrets. My little brother is Snowy Egret, but I call him Showy, with his yellow clown feet. Our baby sister is Cattle Egret; she’s usually with her friends. Our half-brother is Reddish Egret; we don’t see him very often. Our cousins are the Heron clan. We see them all the time.
Me, I am Great Egret. You can call me Great. I’m the tallest of the egrets. I stand over three feet tall, and my wings spread nearly five feet wide. It only takes me two strokes per second to cruise at 25 miles per hour. I can fly across several states in one season.
But when I’m in Florida, I don’t have much reason to travel. I’ll stay near my clan year round. We like to build colonies in the trees over water. Other species join us, and we all chatter about each other’s oddities. Of course, I get the highest branches.
I also have better taste than my siblings. They eat a lot of bugs and frogs. Cattle Egret even eats ticks. I’ll eat that stuff if I have to, but I prefer fresh fish. I go fishing every day. Life is good, just standing in the shallows, waiting for a bite to come along.
Sometimes the sun makes a glare on the water and I can’t see the fish. But I can open my wings a little to block the sun. On a hot day, the fish like that shade. They’ll swim over to me to cool off in my shadow. Snacks actually deliver themselves right to my feet. In a flash, they’re wiggling in my belly. I told you I was Great.
Water isn’t the only place to find a treat. I find interesting things in the woods also. I don’t like walking through the brush, but I could stand at the edge and stare into the woods for hours, just lost in thought. You never know what will show up. Florida has all kinds of snakes that slide down easily. Of course, there’s plenty of lizards, too, especially those invasive brown anoles doing their goofy pushups.
I don’t do pushups. When it’s time to make baby egrets, I get dressed up. I paint my cheeks green, and I grow long, wispy plume feathers. Humans used to kill me just to sell my plumes. Back then, egret plumes cost more than gold by the ounce, and people couldn’t get enough of them. I almost went extinct. Thank God the birders saved me. The National Audubon Society was founded to stop the plume trade. They chose me as their official symbol. I told you I was Great.
I might as well be the official symbol for Ponte Vedra. The town is known for natural elegance, and I ooze elegance, do I not? I’m a favorite for artists and home decorators and neighborhood signs and business logos and jewelry and you name it. With so many domesticated copies, it’s easy to forget that I actually live out in the wild. That’s why I chose this picture for our meeting. You can join me in my favorite place, the marsh at dusk.
You can also invite me into your home. I bring peace. I spent some time with photographer Greg Frucci. He was so peaceful that I allowed him to take this picture. What a blessing that you can take my picture and not my feathers. Greg has this picture for sale in his gallery. Click here to see what it would look like in your room. You can even print it on metal so I can stay outside.
I’ve shared enough. Let’s go back to staring at each other and listen to the loons out there.
