for those who dare to look
will be blessed by beauty
We often go by life without looking; unaware of what passes us. And this is a good thing, because if we try to look at everything that passes our vision, we will be dumped into a chaotic world, one in which we have no idea where to focus our vision.
Birding allows one to "bracket" so to speak the world out there by focusing on one thing: the bird we are looking at. We are more attuned to the movement around us when we zone in on this particular thing.
As we looked at many gulls on the beach, we saw a lone Egret (of some species) fly over us, moving down to land in the ocean, the breaking waves. Luckily, I was standing reading with my camera to capture the moment it landed.
As we were going through the photographs, my fiance remarked that it looked like an angel, hence the title of this post!
The ocean angel.
And what a beautiful sight it was indeed. The elegant movements of this bird almost caused it to move in slow-motion. I took my time to get as close as possible.
The beach was empty, except for the many birds (mostly gulls and plovers). It was a strange sighting; I am not used to egrets coming to the beach. Maybe I visit the beach too rarely to make this statement. But there it was, landing in front of us, for our eyes and camera to capture.
It mesmerised us with its beauty, its elegance, its slow movements.
It remained the ocean angel.
Usually, I see these egrets hanging around cattle, in fields where rain water has collected, and where frogs probably laid their eggs. Maybe I have not looked hard enough to see them at the beach. Maybe it got lost on its way, resting for a short while on the desolate beach where nobody could harm it.
Apparently, the egret is one of those bird species that can be found all over the world, and I think these are also migrating birds. But I see them year-round if I am correct here where I live, especially in fields where cattle graze. I know there is a cattle egret species, but I think this one that resembled an angel in the ocean is a great (alba) egret. I am not sure.
Alas, as quickly as the moment presented itself, it faded into the obscurity of what we call life. I shifted focus back to the gulls, and then to other things, like grabbing myself also something to eat. It is funny how life is a constant shift, in perspective, moods, and emotions.
I hope that you have caught some beautiful bird-photographs! Keep well.
All of the musings and writings are my own. The photographs used in this post are also my own, captured by my Nikon D300 and Tamron 300mm zoom lens.
