As I looked out over Southampton Water this morning, the sky was a cloudless blue, the sun shone, the tide was coming in, and the shoreline was dotted with gulls and wading birds. There are always lots of gulls; common, herring, yellow-legged, black-headed, black-backed; usually a good number of oystercatchers, curlews and turnstones; often a few godwits and redshanks; and sometimes an egret, maybe two. And of all these visitors, I love the egret most of all; with its fine black bill, white plume, slender neck and long black legs; it's such an elegant bird.... and then there are those great big yellow feet! They're wonderful - and so unexpected - I love them. And I think that's why I love the egret so much; I'm just longing to catch sight of those feet!
The picture doesn't quite show the egret's true elegance (I caught it hunched and ready to spear a fish, and it has an evil look in its eye), but you can just about see one of those big yellow feet.
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