No egrets?

Because Evelyn was busy this afternoon taking care of some things for her father, Joe needed a ride home. They live in Lime Ridge, another little intersection masquerading as a town about thirty miles west of Baraboo and Wisconsin Dells. On the way back, I passed a lot of dairy farms and saw lots of cattle. And I noticed something that had struck me the other day. I never see cattle egrets -- you know, those snowy white birds you see around cattle in Texas. When I got home, I looked it up online, and supposedly they have been seen up here in the winter. I guess I am not looking around for them in winter, or else they disappear in the snow. They are attractive birds and goodness knows Wisconsin has enough cattle for them. They are a kind of heron and are related to cranes, the latter being a big deal locally as I have mentioned.

Fun/weird cattle egret factoid: The cattle egret’s reproduction is very unusual. For egrets to have babies there must be a temporary group of one male and two females. After they mate the male stays with one of the females and the other female leaves. After the eggs are laid the female will become the mother of 2-4 babies.