Down by the Feather River one day, I was watching (naturally) the lagoon above Bedrock Park at Oroville when a snowy egret came soaring in for a delicate landing on a log. To see that white graceful bird fly is to see the essence of bird beauty as the feathered body drifts like a gossamer spider web in the wind when landing, or flaps softly in rhythmical slow motion on the outward bound.

That snowy egret in the morning was hungry, and it began watching the water intently for breakfast. Poised on the log you could plainly see the bright yellow feet at the end of black legs, and soon it was doing its thing of shaking that foot in the water to distract, or attract, small fish. It works. I counted 30 quick jabs and each time its beak connected with a minnow-sized fish. How would you like to have breakfast by grabbing a fish with your mouth?

Soon, another snowy egret dropped down at the lagoon edge, keeping a respectful 20 yards away, for to intrude into that claimed fishing space would be to invite an objection. Then another was attracted by the success, but all three kept the same distance apart.

What interested me in this morning show was the bird's need for space. The thing that animals need for survival is room to function naturally in their habitat. You can't just throw together some mitigated acres isolated from the attached environment and expect life to go on. Something will lose out for lack of adequate space and connection to the overall terrain. You see that situation in Amazonian rainforests where they cut large tracts of trees and leave a few isolated park acres as a show of conservation. Species are losing out there, cut off from sexual mingling with other colonies in adjoining woodlands.

In the sky a red-tailed hawk was soaring, watching for its breakfast. It must scrutinize many fields to find a careless mouse. The colony of bushtits went from thicket to thicket fleecing the branches for breakfast. It takes a lot of space for successful hunting. Large animals like mountain lions require a hundred miles of territory to find adequate food. Many such hunting grounds are burdened with housing intrusions thereby creating a conflict. Increasing human populations are finding difficulties in accommodating big animals such as elephants, mountain lions, condors and certain cranes. Even whales find their waters contaminated with the dregs of mankind as well as harpoons.

The Feather River corridor is presently a ribbon of green creating a passageway for much of its wildlife population. Let us treasure this wildlife connection and respect the animal's need for room to roam.

"We all dwell in a house of one room - the world with the firmament for its roof - and are sailing the celestial spaces without leaving any track."

- John Muir