Egrets
By Rachel Haynie

Recently, early- morning drivers pulling over or slowing down to the posted 25 mph on Rockbridge Road have nearly caused traffic jams.

Motorists have been craning their necks to see white egrets, blue herons, and other waterfowl, in profusion.

As the morning mist lifts, this ballet of birds has been January mornings' main event. With the rising sun spotlighting them, egrets all in a row on the water's edge have formed a winged chorus line.

They seem oblivious to the audience of humans rumbling across the bridge on their way to work or school. The sounds of early construction going on in the new development near Rockbridge Club don't frighten them away either.

Neighbors with binoculars, watching the winter show from their decks, describe the birds' behavior as arresting.

"They seem to be waiting for some inaudible call from their leader," said long- time resident Joan Windham, from her lakeside vantage point. Then the aerial dance begins a second act, and the egrets fly off in a mannerly order, one at a time, and start a new line on the other side.

A half- dozen egrets or more at a time ascend to a balcony view from the top of some bare hardwood. If many more flocked to those branches, it would look like a rookery. But it's too cold, too early for them to be mating, said Congaree National Park Naturalist Fran Rametta.

"They wouldn't mate that close to a road with people going by like that," said Rametta, who hadn't seen the Rockbridge nature show yet. "They would find some place more secluded than that, somewhere in the woods."

Without seeing first hand the birds in their white- tails receiving line, Rametta figures the waterfowl are being opportunists. "What motorists and neighbors are seeing is a fish banquet. Low water probably trapped some minnows, creating a good food supply for this time of year," Rametta figures the word among the egrets is out.

At first glance the egrets, often associated with the coast, look out of place in this midlands' urban setting. Maybe they know something we don't. After all, the coastline once came in this far.