The U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, in its infinite stupidity, decided that the egrets should not be allowed to nest in this rookery this year. They hired a company to create noise and light who come at dusk and dawn since the birds arrived, and shoot guns with noise and flares to frighten the birds away. The rookery is on private property so the shooting has to be done from the levee.
I had a conference telephone call with the Corps, some of the people on the other end of the line probably don't even know what an egret is, and they have no intention to cease and desist.
This one egret couple has remained in spite of it all. Their nest is almost complete and I am hoping that they stay and hatch their eggs and raise their chicks. It will be lonely for them because usually about 300 birds come to the rookery each year for the past four decades.
The Times Picayune is doing a feature story on this action of the Corps and I am hoping that they also name the company and the price the company is receiving, our taxpayers dollars in action.
I have not slept well for over a week thinking about the confusion of the birds. Egrets can live up to 15 years in the wild so I know that most of them have returned to this rookery each spring for at least that long.