What is one thing that people constantly worry about running out of?
Depending on where you are at in your life, you might choose one of the following:
- Cheap gas for your gas guzzler
- Money in your checking account
- Monthly mobile data
- Battery in your phone
- Medical health insurance coverage
- Likes and favorites on social media
- toilet paper
And all of these are fair answers, but as you grow older in life one thing you constantly worry about is "running out of time". Once people realize they have limited time left on planet Earth, they will try to make the most of it. And that influences all our decisions in life. Whether it is running a stop sign or going 20 miles over the speed limit on the freeway to shouting at Starbucks baristas to make their drinks quickly or getting annoyed at Amazon for not delivering your packages on time even though the delivery driver was injured in a car accident.
The key to success is being at the right place at the right time. So, when water started flowing into this channel near the Sunnyvale Water Pollution Control plant, the players knew it was time to capitalize. Seen below are Black-crowned Night Heron, Great Egret and Snowy Egret getting ready to wet their beaks.
Oh wait, a Green Heron wants to join the party as well. It is like watching an All-star Game minus the Great Blue Heron. Stop acting greedy for once, will ya?
Now, we all feel our lives are harder than the rest. Whether it is having to wait for 20 minutes at your favorite fast-food drive-thru or struggling to get that plushie using the claw machine at the arcade.
That's cute, says the Great Egret, because of the life it has chosen to live. You see, when light travels from one medium like air to another medium like water, it bends slightly giving the illusion that objects in the water are closer than they appear just like your side-view mirror. This property is called refraction and it can mess with your visual senses. Below is how it appears when looking at the penny from top of the glass as compared to from the side.
So, the Great Egret is playing a game of the claw machine on a much harder level than you and me play at.
Unlike humans who use math outside of school simply for calculating how many more installments are pending for the pricey, shiny new iPhone they impulsively purchased 2 years ago. Egrets will be making calculations like the speed at which the fish is swimming, the flow rate of the water, the angle of refraction and its corresponding offset to swoop in on its target. So, next time you see an Egret concentrating while looking at the water, don't disturb it, it is probably doing more mathematical calculations than you and I ever will.
Going back to the Egrets waiting to capitalize on that opportunity, we see the Great Egret has called dibs on the front seat and thus a better opportunity at the arriving fishes while the Snowy Egret takes the backseat with a frown. Now, instead of acting all salty, if the Snowy Egret would have simply opened a twitter account and claimed to be a victim in this scenario, it could have gotten the Great Egret cancelled and gotten to the front of the line. Let's be honest here for a second, Snowy Egrets are not the smartest of the bunch.
Once the feeding frenzy starts, you will see the Great Egret doing something like this.
But to truly savor this moment, we must look up close and slow time down.
Here is what happens, as soon as the Egret catches one fish with its bill it will let the fish struggle for a while and use up all its energy. It is the same treatment one would do with an Intern after week 1 who thinks they can change the world with their internship. You dress them down and show them how the world actually works which then breaks their morale and helps them settle down to accept their eventual fate. In the case of the Egret, it reduces the chances the fish will slip away before gulping it down.
And then, once the fish has stopped flailing like a little baby, the Egret will yank back its head and keep its mouth wide open to catch the fish in its gullet. Similar to how you would throw a cheese ball and catch it with your mouth, but no one and I repeat no one has ever eaten just one cheese ball and said I am done now. Similarly, this Egret, once it started feeding it just couldn't stop.
You can probably tell this Egret had a smoking habit in its previous life. Bad Egret! BAD! BAD!
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