Great egret

Tuesday
Unfortunately Jen was working again today (she's a nurse), so we were amusing ourselves for the day. We had decided to drive to the coast to Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, west of Galveston. Unfortunately it was a grey, dismal, and at times drizzly day, so the light wasn't very good for photography. Over the winter the refuge is home to around 100,000 snow geese, Canada geese and many varieties of ducks, but today the viewing was rather disappointing. The best time to catch the snow geese is at dawn or dusk, as during the day they will take off for other feeding grounds, and since it's at least a 90-minute drive from Houston, that wasn't very practical - we like our sleep too much! We did see quite a variety of ducks, but unfortunately not very close, and whilst we had remembered to take our binoculars with us, I hadn't thought to take the bird guide with us so I couldn't identify them. Moreover there weren't many people around on this dull grey day, so there was no-one to enlighten us. We didn't see any alligators either - I think the weather was probably too cold for them, and they were sheltering at the bottom of the water. It really came down to a choice between this great egret or a black vulture sitting on a fence post - the egret won since it's better-looking! So all in all a somewhat disappointing day.