The Yard Pond

[squirrelwhisperer]

Awesome pics! I must agree with @The_Real_TCIII about the leeches, tho. Yuck! I live right on the bay down here and White Egrets and Blue Heron are both fairly common. Love to watch them hunt. @Pygmy is right, AWESOME predators. So let me tell you a little story about one of my run ins with an egret......

It is DARK out. It's almost an hour before sunrise. No moon. Thick cloud. Snow coming any minute. Time for some duck hunting! I go to a feeder creek off the bay, perhaps more of a small river, maybe 75 yards to the other bank. Got the decoys done. I walk over to the cattails and just kinda back up into them. The water is only a foot or so deep but i am sunk down a good 4-6 inches into the silt. Load the Browning Gold. Still dark. Starting to snow. Hear ducks in the decoys. Really excited for legal light! What's that noise? Footsteps through the water? No one can get to this spot without a canoe or knowing my bud in the house over there at the dead end. They are getting closer. They definitely don't sound human. Not a deer. Can't be an alligator. Not a raccoon. Musk rat swim. What the hell is it?? They are right on top of me! They stopped. What happened? 

I hear two more steps, then from the right, out steps a white egret! Stops and turns to look right at me. Less than two feet away! This thing is tall. It didn't sink into the bottom like me but I am 5' 10" and this thing is almost eye level with me. Top of his head is about even with my chest. He doesn't realize what I am and is staring at me. WOW is that beak is long...and sharp looking. What if he spears me? I'm done. I think I am gonna crap in my waders. No way I could shoot him. They are so fast, I couldn't even bonk him on the head before he pierces me.

After what felt like an eternity, I blink my eyes and this thing freaks out. Takes off making all kinds of racket. Takes all the duck with him, too. SOB!

Imagine...a grown man...with a LOADED gun...scared of a bird!!