A Cynic’s Cure

I was sitting at my computer earlier today, agonizing over this freelance writing thing I’ve decided to try and make a living at and nowhere near deciding which animal would be the subject of today’s blog, when a large white flash crossed the window in front of me. It happened so fast that my brain, locating itself firmly in my second story room in a house sitting in the middle of an urban suburb, could not place the white blur. I peeked over the corner of my screen, my eyes a little fuzzy, and there, perched in one of my neighbor’s fruit trees was a great egret (Ardea alba, if you’re curious).

They aren’t an uncommon site in Northern California, but they are an uncommon site in my neighborhood (an actual hood, in the grittiest sense of the word), at least fifteen miles from any water. It was out of place in every sense of the phrase. Great egrets normally nest and hunt near fresh or saltwater in colonies, feeding mainly on fish. My neighbor’s tree, not suited for a bird three and a half feet tall with a wingspan of almost five feet, was bending and shaking as the lanky fowl searched for a foothold. I yelled down the stairs for my husband. And as we attempted pictures with camera phones (which of course didn’t come out), we discussed the possibilities for such an odd presence in our hood. None came to mind, but we did hope in our world-weary way that none of the neighbors shot it. I don’t know if egrets make good food, but they might make good sport for someone bored, armed, and disillusioned.

After a few minutes it flew off and we both hoped out loud that it made it somewhere safe. Although the sighting lasted only a few minutes, seeing an incredibly beautiful bird in my far from beautiful neighborhood yanked at my mind all day. A soft and elegant white foil to my prickling cynicism? It would seem so. And of course I couldn’t help but wonder if there could be any cure to a cynical world view if such a graceful bird couldn’t banish it for even a few minutes. (Odd Cat howls from solitary as I write this, poor old man gets sprung tomorrow. I wonder if cats get cynical. Actually I’m certain cats can be cynical). I don’t take for granted the unexplained and unexpected sighting, but there was a time when it might have seemed fortuitous. Today, I just worried about the bird and hoped the humans it encountered at worst ignored it and at best were respectful.

I did do a little research on Ardea alba. It turns out they are one of we humans’ success stories. Hunted to near extinction for their plumage (put that feather in your cap), they are now listed as secure and thriving with habitats all over the world. And although a sardonic, ‘just in time to wiped out by global warming’, type comment did race through my mind, a flicker of hope for the world, for the human race, and for egrets in hoods everywhere exiled it and I smiled to sit down and blog about the beautiful bird that crossed my path today.

(image by Davefoc)