The other night, I was desperate for a good picture for the tail end of my 365 project. I was tired of random photos that I happened to take it home. It had also been extremely rainy lately. So with a clear evening at hand, I decided to go for a drive, and ended up in Forest Park. By the time I had made the decision to go there, I decided I really wanted a sunlight/sunset on water picture, so I ended up parking by several bodies of water that are cut-through by a jogging/biking trail.
I first saw some ducks, a family swimming across the calm pool of water, mirror-like in its stillness.
Then, I crossed the road (yes, to get to the other side), to see what kind of life there was in that body of water. I met this tall, white bird. I'm not sure what he is - but he was very tall, very skinny, and very white. As the night got darker, he seemed to get whiter.
But what was more amazing about him was watching him eat. He ate fish, unsurprisingly, but it was the manner in which he got his fish that was amazing. He'd stay very still, and then very slowly creep forward and then, super quick, lunge with his long neck and beak into the water and grab his prey. He almost seemed to tiptoe as he moved. It was amazing. And beautiful. But what was even more amazing was his incredible wingspan. Looking at the bird at rest, you'd have no idea that he had a huge wingspan. I stalked this bird on both sides of the road because I just was amazed at his behavior - and I wanted to get pictures of him in flight.
All this was broken up by this dog who decided, much to his owner's dismay, to take an unplanned dip:
And since so much time had passed, I stuck around for a lovely sunset picture:
All in all, it was an hour or so well spent. I saw the sunset, I saw ducks, I watched and learned about a big white bird. And I have the pictures to prove it.
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