A Little Beauty

For some reason, my alarm clock didn't go off this morning - but in the event this malfunction gifted me a walk through the park (to catch a later train at a different station). A glorious late autumn morning it was too, with blue skies and dazzling sun - and there, in the bend of the river, close by the path, a snow-white Little Egret. I've written before about my encounters with egrets (egrets, I've had a few...), but usually this elegant bird is keeping its distance, standing apart from the other birds, ready to take flight at any moment. This one, however, was consorting happily with a bunch of park mallards and showed not the slightest anxiety as I walked past, within a few yards. It seems that, like the heron before it, the egret is turning domestic, adapting to a suburbia where there is nothing to fear from us humans - except perhaps getting hit on the head by a stray piece of bread. Well, each one of these fine birds is a welcome splash of heart-lifting beauty.