A dash of beauty during the most miserable time of the year

There is very little good that can be said about the winter, even in lovely California. The days are short, the lighting drab, the vines lonely, denuded and miserable.

So at this time of the year that house guardian and all around good egg, Bertram the Border Terrier, adopts a winter routine. After hopping off the bed he makes a quick trip to the outdoor toilet, then spreads himself out on the big sofa in the living room. How a small terrier manages to claim all of a three seat sofa beats me, but I know my place.

Anyway, aforesaid Border was seen to raise a questioning eyebrow this morning as his guide and master, doing his best Rambo imitation, crawled along the carpet with camera and honker lens attached. I had replaced the obligatory head strap with a pair of woolen pajamas, you know, the ones with the classy paisley design, but the whole ensemble attracted little more than a sigh of disgust from the four legged one who wrote the whole episode off as just so much more eccentricity on the part of his guide and master.

The family manse is some 22 miles east of the Pacific and is guest to many fine animals. A couple of rabbit families have burrows in the vineyard, much to Bertram’s dismay, and the bird boxes see swallows, finches, bluebirds and other relatives at various times of the year. Hummingbirds do a number on the star jasmine on the north patio, with their high pitched chirps and wonderful flying. Red tail hawks provide an unceasing vigil, with ground squirrels being a particular delicacy while the turkey vultures, with faces only a mother could love, teach one and all what effortless flying is about. Once the grapes ripen, the flocks of starling feast on our crop with no intent of payment (just like Bubba on my taxes), accounting for no less than a ton of grapes last year. Greedy buggers!

But back to the Rambo bit. The object of my attention was a rare visitor indeed. A magnificent egret was perched on the little bridge over the pond. He had been dropping in for a couple of days now and any sign of movement in the home would immediately spook him. Hence the all fours bit. The moment I spotted him early this morning I did my best commando imitation and high tailed it (OK, grovelled on the carpet), to the office to slap the 400mm honker on the camera.

Gradually sliding open the sliding glass wall on the south side of Chez Pindelski, I had time for just two snaps before the Great White Egret made off. I was all of seventy feet away. What brings him so far inland I have no idea, as you usually see him and his kin hanging out along the coast in marshland. The little pond used to contain magnificent carp which I had raised over a couple of years, but the sushi-loving racoons put paid to that. Maybe he just liked the clear well water that feeds the pond?

Anyway, here he is in all his splendor. I had to really crank up the contrast when processing the picture, owing to the horribly flat light. No matter. A visitor of this distinction is always welcome at the estate. Check out those legs!

Great White Egret. 5D, 400mm Canon EF ‘L’, 1/500, f/5.6, ISO 500. Processed in Aperture.

Ordinarily these fellows are to be found at the coast in reedy surroundings, like here:

Great White Egret. 5D, 400mm Leitz Telyt, 1/500, f/6.8, ISO 800. Processed in Aperture.

This was snapped just off Highway One a couple of years back.