This beautiful story was submitted by Carol Ray.
Tri-colored heron
If you are seriously into bird watching or birding, you likely have a list of illusive birds you would most likely love to see. Perhaps you have traveled extensively looking for those special species.
Such is the case for my daughter-in-law – daughter-in-love In like to call her – Carrie. A bird she has been looking for from Washington state to Maine, from California to Florida, was the tri-colored heron.
One fall, while visiting me in Taylor in August 2018, we were watching a constant flow of birds, mostly egrets, flying from the east to the west. My granddaughter asked where they were all headed. I said let’s go see. It’s not far, and it’s pretty spectacular!
Carrie grabbed her professional-grade camera and off we went, driving at least three whole miles to Murphy Park. We got out of the car and the birds keep coming in to the egret island for their overnight accommodations.
It wasn’t long before Carrie spotted the tricolored egret, right here in Taylor. Statistically, their habitat is coastal 94-99.9%, according to Texas A&M Agri-Life Research at https://txtbba.tamu.edu/speciesaccounts/tricoloredheron.
“Distribution: The Tricolored Heron is abundant but is mostly coastal in estuaries, lagoons, swamps and marshes within the Coastal Prairies region,” said the website. “Specific habitats include mud flats, salt and fresh water marshes, tidal creeks, shrub swamps, open shallow bays, and human-made habitats, especially, flooded rice fields and aquaculture ponds (Kushlan and Hancock 2005).”
My hope is that you will consider what your most desired birds would be to see, and then check locally before searching the world over. Best of all, get out and enjoy what nature has to offer us every day.
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