Francis Duggan - Cattle Egrets

To the grazing cows or steers they stick close by
To devour tiny things that from big hooves hop or fly
The cattle egrets for them an apt name
Though shy of people when with cattle they seem tame.

The cattle egrets travel far and wide
For miles and miles through the brown countryside
Lanky and fragile and so slow in flight
In Winter paddocks a familiar sight.

Cattle egrets as white as new fallen snow
Are birds that every country person know
And though they fly to places near and far
You will always find them near where cattle are.

From big hooved mammals never far away
They hang around the grazing herds all day
And at twilight as darkness cloaks the sky
They fly off to their roosting trees nearby.

Francis Duggan

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/cattle-egrets/