A Missing Foot and Amazing God

A one-footed great egret determined to find a mate and raise chicks performs its courtship display after most other great egrets have nested.

White dots filled the trees that surrounded the tea-colored waters of the pond below. Alligators patrolled those pond waters looking and waiting for their next meal. The gators knew that their next meal might come from one of the white dots above. For in those trees gathered hundreds of nesting birds and their chicks.

At least half a dozen species flocked to nest in this central Florida rookery. The eggs of one of the largest of these birds, the pure white great egret, had already hatched. I noticed that one great egret was still doing his courtship dance and I noticed that he was missing a foot. Perhaps he lost the foot in a scuffle with a gator below. Sadly, it may have fallen victim to a fishing line left on the shore of a pond by a careless fisherman. 

Determination

The missing foot explains why he was still looking for a mate. The female great egret selects the best male she could find. This bird was overlooked because of his missing foot. But yet with determination, he still did his courtship display while building a nest in hopes of a future mate and offspring.

The one-footed egret eventually found a mate!

Over the next several weeks and months, I returned to this rookery to photograph the nesting birds. To my surprise the one legged egret found a mate! Not only that, I eventually saw eggs in the nest, then chicks and then I saw him return to the nest to feed those chicks.

What makes this story so amazing is that great egrets stalk their prey in the shallow waters along the shores of ponds. This egret would not be able to stalk with only one foot. I don’t know how he was able to find food, but he did. Psalm 104:27 say of the animals, “They all wait for You to give them their food. ” God provided!

The one legged egret and one of his chicks.

An Amazing God

We serve an amazing God who can do amazing things. When hope is in God all hope is never lost. No matter what happens to us here on earth we have our eternal hope. We also have the hope in knowing that our all-powerful God works in our lives today. Nothing is impossible for Him. Jeremiah 32:17 declares, “Ah Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You. ” He can do amazing things in our lives, just like He did with this egret. If He cares for it, our amazing God surely cares for us. (Matthew 10:29-31).