The Black-crowned Night-Heron

Between this week’s bounty of rain, drenching but not flooding my little corner of the Texas Upper Gulf Coast, and the unexpected treasure of out-of-town company, I’ve not made a recent day trip into the field.  And I learned a good many years ago to avoid outings on holiday weekends, so my yearning to be out with camera and binoculars will wait a few more days.

I must admit that my almost-daily writing practice got sidelined after my fruitless trip to purchase an RV.  Time normally spent playing with words, phrases and sentences has given way to therapeutic Google searches, as I’ve tried to work my way into a future plan.  

It’s been 13 months since I spent the night in an RV.  No current solution is a welcome mat for despair; sometimes Google searches bring hopeful ideas--and sometimes they don’t.

I have no answers and I’m bouncing all over the place:  motorized RV to travel-trailer to truck camper.  Nothing jumps out as a new answer as it was extensive research that first took me to a 25’ motorized RV (that bore unforeseen issues this past winter), and then last month’s 23’ trailer that I was certain would be the answer, until it was not.

Maybe I’ll blog soon about my wants and don’t wants, my needs and don’t needs, and then perhaps someone will have a suggestion that will put air back in my sails.  But for now, I must admit I’ve got nothing.

And so there is stillness to this summer.  I have no better way of surviving the heat and humidity of a Gulf Coast summer than knowing the fall season is the reward, and the best of Texas state park travels are in the planning stage.  But not this summer as I don’t have the RV to point west or north this upcoming mid-September.

My stillness brought me back to photos, from this past March, of a wonderfully still Black-crowned Night-Heron at Brazos Bend.  There is a fine line between getting the photographic view and NOT bothering the bird.  I try very hard to err on the side of not bothering the bird.

But this Black-crowned Night-Heron seemed almost as interested in me as I was in this One’s crowned jewel, that gorgeous ruby-red eye:  

She seemed to pose for the camera while trying to politely hide a smile, as I slowly and awkwardly dropped to the ground, to put my camera at her eye-level.  

She asked if she should wash her bill and feet, to remove the green slime of her habitat. But I said, “Oh no, wear your world proudly!”  And then she really did give me a smile:

May all your days be birdy days!