I came home Friday afternoon from San Jose (3 hour drive).
High Five the Dobermans, let the demanding birds out of their cages and love them up too. Change in to comfortable clothes with Dayo attached to my shoulder as always.
Then turn on the PC and sit down for some relaxing web surfing.
After about a half hour, Bentley the Doberman starts this very low and subtle deep throaty growl. He was standing about 6 feet from the sliding glass door peering out. After he continued for about 30 seconds, I lean over from my roll-top desk to peer out the sliding glass door to see what Bentley is alerting to.
There stands a 4 foot tall Great White Egret 10 feet from the door and about a foot from the Pool. My reaction is "OMG!! What the Hell? Then, how beautiful, I must get a photo of this. I grab my cell phone laying on the desk, slowly lean over to get it in-frame with one eye and watching with the other. Then it hit me, what is that thing laying on the pool deck at it's feet that looks like a FISH???
Holy Crap!! It's one of my Koi!! I throw my phone down, walk over and open the sliding glass door and as I did the Egret flew away looking like a B52 bomber with it's massive 6 foot wing-span.
I pick up the almost dead Koi, a few scales laying on the deck, no puncture wounds though and place him back in the waterfall pond and he swims away to the back under cover, so he cannot be seen.
I cannot for the life of me, figure out how this HUGE Egret saw the fish in my waterfall and flew in for a landing. Their eyesight and maneuverability to circle around from who knows how high, then descend and land in a back yard with trees and fence surrounding it and come to a gracefully landing.
Anyway, I am still thinking about the odds of this happening, what it was doing flying over residential area looking for food. There are streams, ponds and lakes all around this area that you would normally see them at and rarely ever flying over the city area.
So anyway, here are some photos of a Great White Egret I found and thought I would share so you can appreciate this mind boggling experience. :-)
<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2010/03/07 14:43
Within all of us is a varying amount of space lint and star dust, the residue from our creation. Most are too busy to notice it, and it is stronger in some than others. It is strongest in those of us who fly and is responsible for an unconscious, subtle desire to slip into some wings and try for the elusive boundaries of our origin. ~K.O. Eckland, "Footprints On Clouds"
Dayo in flight....
What a beautiful bird but how dare they come to steal your koi, yes they have to eat too but like you said there are plenty of fish available without taking your precious koi. They must have amazing eyesight and maybe it was just a glimmer of light off the koi as he was swimming around that got him noticed by that huge egret and so he thought he would pick up a quick snack.
I hope your koi makes it, thanks for sharing the story with us and the pictures too.
Never take life seriously, no one gets out alive anyway!
It must have been so hungry to invade a garden - especially when you say food is plentiful in the area. All I can say Dan - you must have a hell of a sized garden for one of those to come in and not feel intimidated!
I suppose a good sized Koi would be a tasty meal for a bird that size. I know that we are troubled by heron here in the UK - and they are known for "pond dipping" and many people have "decoy herons" (plastic ones) at the side of their ponds to ward others away.
I hope that little fishy survives ~ but I must say - the egret is a beautiful bird
What We Do in Life Echoes in Eternity
Those are beautiful photos. What a gorgeous bird to see... just not dipping into your koi pond. It would difficult not to be in awe of the sighting and more difficult to let it get away with raiding your pond. Thanks for sharing your wonderous experience, I just hope your next sighting is off site.
Amazing birds, it must have given you quite a fright finding one of these at your door LOL. Hope the fish went on to swim a few more laps of your pond Dan
Well, it was not frightening. It was actually an awe inspiring experience seeing such a beautiful creature gracing my pool deck. :-)
The fish is what made me jump to action and save.
The Koi is fine and acts like nothing happened. :-)
Within all of us is a varying amount of space lint and star dust, the residue from our creation. Most are too busy to notice it, and it is stronger in some than others. It is strongest in those of us who fly and is responsible for an unconscious, subtle desire to slip into some wings and try for the elusive boundaries of our origin. ~K.O. Eckland, "Footprints On Clouds"
Well that is good news about the koi but I wonder if that egret will try it again anytime soon.
They certainly are beautiful birds. How is your koi this fine day Dan? I hope he survived the experience. Though traumatic, the experience of seeing the magnificent egret in your backyard must have been wonderful.
~~~~~~~~~~ Ana Grey ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Louie ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sterling Gris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lily ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Glad to hear big bird didn't get his fish supper!!
Certainly a stunning looking fellow though, and lovely to see!
Alfie's Flock!"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."
:P Wonderful post and nice pictures, glad your Koi's ok'...Karma...
A Grey is a wild animal removed from the wild, bred to be companions. They are long removed from being able to take care of themselves but not so long as to forget at times they're still wild...so it's up to us to make sure we protect them. We're the reason they demand all this attention. We removed them from the wild. Jay
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
