Birds of a feather

Once upon a time the masters of the house decided to put in a fish pond.  Once it was set in place and full of water they put a variety of gold fish and koi in to make their home.  The pond prospered through the spring and summer and then into the winter.  Then the water turned black.  It would not regenerate itself but from time to time a fish would rise up to the surface to check out the scene.  Over time this became more of a rarity and the masters began to wonder seriously if there were any more fish left in the pond.

A daughter of the house began speaking of this big white bird that would come every morning and perch itself on the roof of the house outside of her bedroom window.  She would wake up to find this big white bird "staring into her window~~watching her".  She claimed this bird gave her the creeps and she would hunker down under her covers and wait for the bird to leave.  She claimed the same white bird was showing up on campus  (college campus, mind you) later in the day and would follow her from class to class.

When she began telling her Mama' of this, her mother poopoo'd the story and reminded the daughter that these big white birds, White Egrets, were all over town, but lived on the campus in the sanctuary there.  Try as she might however,  she couldn't come up with a good reason as to why any one of these birds would perch on the roof for any length of time until.....well....later it was discovered.....There were no fish in the pond.  

The Egret Ate 'Em.