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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/26/solitary-little-egret-elegant-sentinel-muddy-creek-country-diary
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| A solitary little egret is an elegant sentinel on the muddy creek A solitary little egret is an elegant sentinel on the muddy creek | |
| (6 days later) | |
| On ebbing or flowing tides, the muddy rhine that curves behind the dunes is a fascinating place. This time of year the estuary throngs with geese. Plangent calls tug at your emotions as they pass in V-formations overhead. Occasionally – all too seldom nowadays – a curlew’s bubbling call pitches to crescendo, then cascades down, the massed choirs of thousands a thing of the past. | On ebbing or flowing tides, the muddy rhine that curves behind the dunes is a fascinating place. This time of year the estuary throngs with geese. Plangent calls tug at your emotions as they pass in V-formations overhead. Occasionally – all too seldom nowadays – a curlew’s bubbling call pitches to crescendo, then cascades down, the massed choirs of thousands a thing of the past. |
| What memory might the few survivors hold of legions so drastically dwindled away? I harbour a strong belief in the intelligent connection between living creatures, have seen it manifest time and again in the natural world. It gives rise to some odd liaisons and intriguing behaviour. | What memory might the few survivors hold of legions so drastically dwindled away? I harbour a strong belief in the intelligent connection between living creatures, have seen it manifest time and again in the natural world. It gives rise to some odd liaisons and intriguing behaviour. |
| This draining rhine, for example, often as not is a fishing place for a solitary little egret – a bird that, if collective avian memory does exist, would know something about declining populations. It might be a better symbol for the RSPB than the avocet, for it was awareness of the little egret’s fate in Britain, driven to extinction on the altar of female fashion at the end of the 19th century, that brought that organisation into being. | This draining rhine, for example, often as not is a fishing place for a solitary little egret – a bird that, if collective avian memory does exist, would know something about declining populations. It might be a better symbol for the RSPB than the avocet, for it was awareness of the little egret’s fate in Britain, driven to extinction on the altar of female fashion at the end of the 19th century, that brought that organisation into being. |
| Now little egrets are making a British comeback, but the elegant sentinel of this muddy tidal creek is usually solitary. Or, at least, unaccompanied by his own kind. Often I encounter him fishing here, with an oystercatcher or redshank for company, the pair of them mincing through the shallow stream, watching acutely, spearing for small fish and crustaceans. | Now little egrets are making a British comeback, but the elegant sentinel of this muddy tidal creek is usually solitary. Or, at least, unaccompanied by his own kind. Often I encounter him fishing here, with an oystercatcher or redshank for company, the pair of them mincing through the shallow stream, watching acutely, spearing for small fish and crustaceans. |
| On a day of cold, louring drizzle when only the mud gleamed, suddenly out of the bed of phragmites upstream darted a whirring sky-jewel, a swift vision in lapis lazuli and Indian orange. It dipped between egret and redshank, came up with a small fish in its beak, sped back whence it came. | On a day of cold, louring drizzle when only the mud gleamed, suddenly out of the bed of phragmites upstream darted a whirring sky-jewel, a swift vision in lapis lazuli and Indian orange. It dipped between egret and redshank, came up with a small fish in its beak, sped back whence it came. |
| The firstcomers glanced significantly at each other and stalked over to the pool from which the kingfisher snatched its prey. A reed bunting clung to an adjacent reed stem and watched as the halcyon bird gulped its stickleback or minnow down. | The firstcomers glanced significantly at each other and stalked over to the pool from which the kingfisher snatched its prey. A reed bunting clung to an adjacent reed stem and watched as the halcyon bird gulped its stickleback or minnow down. |
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