Chapter 122 Egret in Deep Bay

Deep Bay, also known as Deep Bay, is the exit of the Shenzhen River into the sea, in the northwest of Yuen Long, New Territories.Because the location is empty and remote, it is the only place in Hong Kong where you can see a large number of various water birds.From egrets, cranes and even pelicans, there are opportunities to see them.Especially in winter, because many water birds like to come to Hong Kong from the north to spend the winter, so you can see more. Great egrets and pond herons are most likely to be seen in Hong Kong. Egrets like to shrink their heads and necks. They also like to shrink their necks when they fly, but at the same time they stretch their feet to the back.This is their characteristic, so you can know it at a glance.This is the easiest place to distinguish storks and egrets.Because storks and wild cranes like to stretch their necks when they fly, but hang their feet under their bodies at the same time.When painting cranes flying in the sky, Chinese painters in old times often portrayed their feet in the same posture as egrets, which is due to inaccurate observation.We don't pay much attention to storks, but foreigners are very interested in them, especially children, because folklore says that all children are carried by storks and cranes from the chimney of the fireplace.

The reason why it is easy to see water birds such as egrets in the Deep Bay area is because they like to forage in the water.There are many paddy fields in Ping Shan Township, Yuen Long, so they are all gathered in this area.Their main food is small fish, but they also eat snails, frogs, mice, and even snakes.The egret's beak is so hard and powerful that a snake would be cut in two with one peck. Egrets have the habit of living in groups.Although they are water birds, they make their nests on the top of big trees, and they like to be together and stay in a fixed place.Every year when they return to Hong Kong after going north for summer or south for cold, they must still go to the original place to build their nests. This habit is quite similar to that of swallows.Sha Tau Kok, Kam Tin, Ping Shan Township and Lantau Island in the New Territories all have such so-called egret nests, but the largest one is in a forest called "Keng Xia Po" in Lam Tsuen Valley.

There is an oily gland on the bodies of egrets and other water birds, which they often use their mouths to apply to their feathers, so they can enter the water without getting wet.Fishing egrets is very interesting, they are not like Yulang or Jade, who suddenly pounce into the water in flight and take out a fish.They walk slowly in the shallow water, bowing their backs and shrinking their necks. They look very much like an old wading fisherman in a coir raincoat, who will peck at the fish when they see it, without missing anything.Another kind is to stand still in the water, waiting for the fish to swim past and catch them.The old Chinese fables call them albatrosses, but this is actually the name of another seabird.