As the birds fly

I observe some of the most interesting things early in the morning. Whether at my house in the backyard or at the shelter, the animals seem to come out right at dusk or dawn and watching and observing how they interact with themselves and each other is one of the more interesting things I do when I am by myself.

Last week, around 6:30 a.m., I watched a juvenile egret land on top of one of the light poles where I work. It kept looking around as if to say, "Where am I and where is the water?"

Five or six minutes later I hear a ''Caw, caw, caw." Then the bombardment by big, black crows. There were probably four or five of them and they began dive-bombing the egret. The egret kept ducking his head and opening his mouth as if to say, "What the heck is going on? What did I do?"

This went on for several minutes and the crows flew off so I figured they were warning the egret of something.

I was wrong. Not two minutes later they were back. The continued dive-bombing the egret when all of a sudden out of nowhere, six or seven seagulls showed up. They began chasing the crows and before you knew it, the crows were gone. The seagulls hung around for a couple of minutes and they flew off.

The egret looked at me as if to say, "Did you see that?" Several minutes later he flew off to unknown places.