I caught a shot of this great white Egret when I dropped by the pond in the park yesterday. When ever I see a white Egret it reminds me of one time when my husband and I were heading towards a nearby small town to do some shopping, when just up ahead on the left side of the road, we saw the most awesome sight... the young mesquite trees were dotted with white egrets scattered throughout in a little patch of pasture ... I had been trying to locate a flock of white Egrets that had been passing over the habitat so I was very excited to see them , "oh wow ... look, look, the Egrets!", I squeeked, as I scrambled for my camera.

But as we got a little closer I became very disappointed to find that the beautiful clusters of what I thought to be white feathers blowing in the winds turned out to be unsightly white plastic. It had been snagged in the wind by the thorns of the mesquites. I could hardly believe my eyes ... a whole field of trash shredding into the winds. And that's when I decided to start picking up trash when ever I get a chance. That was about 8 years ago and I have been doing it every since.

Every time I am out bird and nature site seeing, my journey will inevidably lead me through plenty of trash, plastic, paper, and lot's of other various kinds of litter. And it seems like I am seeing more and more. Many of my nature photos would not had even of been taken , had I not removed the trash from the area to retain it's natural beauty first. I don't mind picking it up because I know I am doing it for the good of human and animal kind.

The site of it is disgusting, but more than that, litter affects each and every one of us, by poisioning our waterways and other vital resources, as well as causing many more hazzards to humans, wildlife, and every other living thing on our planet. Sometimes the problem seems so overwhelming because there is just so much of it everywhere ya look now days. But If each one of us will pick up a little (and spread the word to others to do so) we will all make a big difference towards creating a much cleaner and safer environment.

Here are a couple related links about our litter problem, I have posted about the first one before...

And this one has some interesting facts too...