These two elegant wading birds were content to ignore each other most of the morning as they strolled the shallows of Eagle Creek Reservoir this October, but they both seemed to take it personally when they realized that their paths were about to cross. It looked like angry motorists arguing after an accident or a close call, and the egret’s obvious haste compared to the heron’s beak in the air in the second image fits the comparison perfectly.
I find myself imagining these birds with New Yorker accents in this very human-looking confrontation. I can definitely envision a “hey, I’m wading here!” in the first image, and the egret is muttering expletives as it speeds away in the second.
Once they were far enough away, both returned to their dignified, unruffled stroll- and didn’t lose track of each other again. One near-miss was apparently enough.
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