Introducing poems by two American Birding Association Young Birders featuring their favorite wading birds.
The Hunt of the Egret
Each step is elegant
Each one refined
As it wades through the marshland
With food on its mind.
It moves like a ghost,
It’s as silent as snow.
Each footfall only
Leaves its calm wake in tow.
It has been searching for hours
But it doesn’t stop yet
With its mind set on something
It knows it will get.
A flash or a splash,
A tiny mistake
Is all this it needs
For its meal to be made.
A flicker, a ripple,
Catches its eye
It turns its head
To what might be its prize.
It moves slowly towards it,
With the grace of a dove.
Looking down on the ripple
Like an angel from above.
It strikes like a spear,
Deadly but sleek
And it flies from the water
With a fish in its beak.
Emilio M. is a high schooler from Arlington, Virginia. He started birding in 5th grade, and has loved it ever since. He credits birding as sparking his love for the natural world. His favorite places to bird include Florida and Texas, along with his own backyard. His dream spots to bird are Costa Rica and Australia, where he hopes to travel someday. Away from birding, he enjoys sports like taekwondo and soccer.
Dedicated to the Great Blue Heron that Lives by the Creek
Great Blue Heron,
I remember that once I dared to meet your eyes—
those depthless pools of melted sun,
and it threw me,
how you didn’t flit away on swift wings like other birds,
how you instead kept me trapped in your timeless gaze,
because you were not afraid
of man.
and so we beheld each other—
me, clutching heavy binoculars to strengthen my weak vision, and—
you, with the feathers in the hue of a roiling ocean beneath a raging storm. you, with the
intimidating stature that declares your majesty. you, with the long thin legs that move in a
dance as fluid as water. you, with the elegant coiled neck that can snap out faster than white
lightning striking earth. you, with bones as light as an invisible death. you,
apex of the waters.
you traverse land and sky and water because you belong to everything and nothing at once.
you are at once dangerous and beautiful—
monster and angel trapped in a single flesh.
how is it that a being such as you walks the earth,
that mortals see you and escape unscathed?
Great Blue Heron,
guardian of the creek, or maybe its captor—
i remember that once i dared to meet your eyes—
and i was afraid.
Rachael Q. is a high schooler living in Texas. Her love for birds began with a Baltimore Oriole glimpsed on a morning bird survey and culminates in works such as this poem. Birds play a prominent role in her art and writing, two of her other passions.
