Herons

If I look out the train window when we pass by the marshes with the tall grasses between Newark and Jersey City, I'm sure to see a perfectly white heron or egret standing at the edge of an area of water. Sometimes I've seen ducks there, as well. 

I also saw what our family thinks is a 'great blue heron' much farther up the train line, as we passed by a brook. 

The railroad slices through the countryside in a different way than the roads do. 

When I was little, there was a bad gypsy moth problem for several years. When you'd go in the woods, it would sound like it was raining lightly, but that was actually a sound related to the gypsy moths (falling excrement?) One year, they sprayed the forested mountain across the road by helicopter. 

When I went to the nature reserve a couple of weeks ago, I heard that same sound. This past weekend, on my walk to the state park, I saw a gypsy moth along the road. Perhaps they're making a comeback of sorts. 

My first instinct was to step on it, as I was taught when I was little. Fortunately, I didn't follow my instinct. 

I don't want that they would destroy the leaves in the forest, but I'm in no position to judge their place and merit in the ecosystem. They are also living beings who need to eat. Destruction of life shouldn't be undertaken lightly. Many of the great religions and philosophies tell us this.