Gone Fishin’: Great White Egret in Central Park
Walking the NYC pandemic
At the northeast corner of Central Park is the Meer, a small lake stocked with fish and home to birds.
At the edge of a small island, I saw bright movement: a great white egret.
A mighty hunter seeking prey.
It flew across the small expanse of water and landed on the pathway.
How still it holds itself and how extraordinarily flexible is its neck. We humans have seven cervical vertebrae while an egret has, count them. eighteen.
After a few minutes, the big bird opened its wings and swooped low along the shoreline to try its luck a little further on.
Beautiful.
For more on bird necks, including photos of bird contortionists and a brief anatomy lesson, see Bird Neck Appreciation Day.
Share this:
Tags: birds of central Park, Central Park, Central Park Meer, egret video, great white egret, video of egret in Central park nyc
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
Out walking the dog 
April 29, 2020 at 7:04 pm
So nice to see that park, to see the egret, to finally remember it was your birthday (so sorry i forgot but who can keep track anymore??), to walk with you there again is what I want when this is all over!
May 4, 2020 at 8:57 am
I want that, too! Birthdays, birthdays, they come every year, don’t they? Anyway, back in the days we could travel (oh, come again soon, travel days!), we celebrated enough to last as long as needed! We’ll walk the trifecta of parks again one of these days (Central, Morningside & Riverside).