A friend of mine who is a retired Vietnam vet, semi-tired professor, world traveler and just a generally funny ol coot just wrote this and I thought I would share. We only hear the bad of these birds, well here is someone who really enjoys their company. 
"I started this by flipping Birdlee a fish while I was fishing. He was just a mooch. A kind of handsome mooch, but a mooch none the less. As time went by whenever he saw me across the lake he would fly over and get withing 3-4 feet of me to mooch a fish. It was an evening thing. Me, him, the snakes, the cooters, the bream, the carp and the bass all would have a rendezvous. Then, Birdlee started coming directly to the back door of the house to get me. I am not kidding. Three times a day, I'd walk down to the lake and fish together. On days when the small bream were scarce I'd walk to a second lake about 200 yards from my house. He would walk behind me like a dog and we would fish there. After he figured out the route by walking, he would fly ahead of me to this other pond and wait for me. Nanny nanny boo boo. This continued for three years. He would disappear late Nov. to late Feb. for mating season, And, then just reappear at the back door in the beginning of March. He was quite the character. When the other egret showed up, Pelican Bill, he would chase after hin and the would have quite a honking season and aerial combat. Then, last year he did not return. Fate unknown.
Then a few weeks ago, this new egret shows up standing looking at me coming out the garage door. Of course we thought it was Birdlee, but he was quite skittish, but still a mooch. So, I'm trying to get him in on the old routine of fishing with me down by the lake.
The new egret was a lizard hunter and eater of some great skill. A true terror, well, if you were a lizard. Well, I got him used to eating finger mullet about the size of a cigar and about one ounce each. Over the last two weeks he has eaten ten packs of mullet at @$4.00 per pack.. So I caught some small bream last evening and put them in the fridge for today. He came this morning and would not eat bream! He looked at them, walked around them, picked a few up, and promptly dropped them. No likee!!! I waited for an hour to see if hr would eat them after I went back in the house-no soap. . I picked up all the bream and began tossing them to him, pick up ONE and promptly dropped it. So, back to the bait shop for more mullet. I got back about 45 minutes later and he was standing on my roof and not one bream was touched. I thawed out the mullet and he promptly ate ten. So, my plan now is to try to mix in a few bream after I get the feeding routine with the mullet. I hope to graduate to bird to the free bream. He is now coming twice a day-so that will be about 18-20 mullet a day.
He is quite the sport and a challenge to train. He did fly up to the fence 20 feet from the back door, just like Birdlee did. But, Birdlee was up to 27 bream a day with three feeding per day=about 9 each time."
"I started this by flipping Birdlee a fish while I was fishing. He was just a mooch. A kind of handsome mooch, but a mooch none the less. As time went by whenever he saw me across the lake he would fly over and get withing 3-4 feet of me to mooch a fish. It was an evening thing. Me, him, the snakes, the cooters, the bream, the carp and the bass all would have a rendezvous. Then, Birdlee started coming directly to the back door of the house to get me. I am not kidding. Three times a day, I'd walk down to the lake and fish together. On days when the small bream were scarce I'd walk to a second lake about 200 yards from my house. He would walk behind me like a dog and we would fish there. After he figured out the route by walking, he would fly ahead of me to this other pond and wait for me. Nanny nanny boo boo. This continued for three years. He would disappear late Nov. to late Feb. for mating season, And, then just reappear at the back door in the beginning of March. He was quite the character. When the other egret showed up, Pelican Bill, he would chase after hin and the would have quite a honking season and aerial combat. Then, last year he did not return. Fate unknown.
Then a few weeks ago, this new egret shows up standing looking at me coming out the garage door. Of course we thought it was Birdlee, but he was quite skittish, but still a mooch. So, I'm trying to get him in on the old routine of fishing with me down by the lake.
The new egret was a lizard hunter and eater of some great skill. A true terror, well, if you were a lizard. Well, I got him used to eating finger mullet about the size of a cigar and about one ounce each. Over the last two weeks he has eaten ten packs of mullet at @$4.00 per pack.. So I caught some small bream last evening and put them in the fridge for today. He came this morning and would not eat bream! He looked at them, walked around them, picked a few up, and promptly dropped them. No likee!!! I waited for an hour to see if hr would eat them after I went back in the house-no soap. . I picked up all the bream and began tossing them to him, pick up ONE and promptly dropped it. So, back to the bait shop for more mullet. I got back about 45 minutes later and he was standing on my roof and not one bream was touched. I thawed out the mullet and he promptly ate ten. So, my plan now is to try to mix in a few bream after I get the feeding routine with the mullet. I hope to graduate to bird to the free bream. He is now coming twice a day-so that will be about 18-20 mullet a day.
He is quite the sport and a challenge to train. He did fly up to the fence 20 feet from the back door, just like Birdlee did. But, Birdlee was up to 27 bream a day with three feeding per day=about 9 each time."
