I got up really early (well not that early, actually, since the time hasn't changed yet) and went out to get some pictures of the sunrise over the bay. I stopped on the way back to catch the deer grazing in a local field. This small herd lives here in my neighborhood, and has for years. I love seeing them, it always relaxes me.
This reminds me of the photo that we took last Saturday. We were on our way to the market when we saw this cow in the grassy field. Gee, an egret (or is it a heron?) is on the back of the cow and there's another white egret on the grass. It was a sight that I wouldn't miss. It's a good thing that we always bring the camera in the car. Would you believe that the shot was taken inside our village? It's about 500 meters away from our house. Everytime I would pass by that area, I would see the egret so I guess it is living in that grassy field.
Good call, Tom! I had never heard of them before! https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Cattle_Egret/id "Originally from Africa, it found its way to North America in 1953 and quickly spread across the continent. Elsewhere in the world, it forages alongside camels, ostriches, rhinos, and tortoises—as well as farmers’ tractors".
Egrets get around - I've seen cattle egrets, little egrets and great white egrets in various parts of the world. Little egrets have established themselves in the south of both England and Ireland - I've seen them in Cork and Oxford in recent years.
Lots of cattle egrets around here. A few years ago there was a great white egret that roosted every evening in a cedar tree on the small island just across from our back door. I haven seen one lately but great blue herons and the smaller green herons are frequent visitors.
We have lots of egrets and herons here. I love that there's so much nature within this little neighborhood, as well as around us. The area is being developed though, and we're losing some of our green areas, which is why we're seeing (and seeing evidence of) more coyotes. There are also cows, horses, chickens, peacocks, etc. nearby, as well as this guy.
Cows are in the rural areas like North Shore of Oahu along with horses grazing. We got egrets all over Oahu. You'll see them gleefully following a grass cutting machine too! Some common birds on Oahu; zebra doves, spotted doves, myna birds, wild green parakeets, Waxbills, Hawaiian owls, chestnut manikin are some of the common birds. Unfortunately we got sharks that bite in the oceans that surround Hawaii.
Nothing so exotic on the east coast of Scotland, but we have a huge number of waders here at the moment. It's a time of migration, so we get an increase at this time of year. There are masses of oystercatchers, curlews and bar-tailed godwits at the moment. We can hear the lovely, bubbling calls of the curlews even during the night.
We don't often see people riding horses on our beach, but perhaps they thought it was best since the storm system in the Gulf has the water so high right now.