MISPLACED CAJUN IN SOUTHWEST TX

I actually started my day in a pretty glum mode. Things got put back in place rather quickly when my  neighbor Mr Johnson came a rapping on my front door to inform me of an unusual visitor to his pond.

This Tricolor Heron (Egretta tricolor)  was wandering about the pond. I loaded up  Mongo (my 500mm) and hastily hoofed the 2 blocks to his house. I was told the Heron had gotten freaked and flew off. Oh well, I retraced my steps back to coffee and was about to go on out on my am walk when my cell phone rang. The Heron was back. Re-gear, retrace back to the pond and are greeted with “he just left again”. All we got to see was a small V in the sky heading north. Oh well, we hung at the waters edge for a while and had a bit of a Walden’s moment as we watched the Purple Martins do aerobics and a litany of butterflies and dragon flies circling about.

At about 5:00pm, I loaded up a smaller telephoto (300mm) stuck the 1.4 extender in my pocket and went back to see if the heron had returned.  I came to the edge of the pond & set up my photo stool and was greeting with the loud flapping of wings as the big boy was exiting away from my disturbance. So it goes with birding. I whiled away an hour or so trying to catch an image of the Martins skimming accoss the water when once again I heard the sound of large wings. The big boy came in right over the top of me and settled across the pond from me about 20 yards away.

He proceeded to slowly fish his way around the pond until he ended up about 15-20 feet from my stillness. He was close enough that I could hear the small bones of the little fish being crushed in his powerful beak. It was a truly golden moment, I felt so warm and blessed to get to experience this. Thank you Abba, thank you Mr and Ms Johnson.

The Tricolored Heron’s migratory route in generally 200-300 hundred miles to the north. But with drought and the fires, nature is forced to adapt. This is the only dark covered heron that sports a white belly. He is the most abundant heron of the Deep South and was formerly known as the “Louisiana Heron”

Accept the gifts you are given on your journey††††nada te turbe††††jim

via Photo of Da day @ Da Pine #291.