Where do egrets nest, and why do they follow cows?
Steven Yoder, Humansville A: Cattle egrets build nests in colonies with other egrets or other kinds of herons. In Missouri they nest in tall oaks, sycamores, cottonwoods or willows. Males gather twigs and branches and pass them to females, who build the nests. As cows mosey around a pasture, they scare up grasshoppers, crickets, spiders and sometimes frogs from the grass-all things egrets like to eat. Cattle egrets follow cows and even perch on their backs so they can easily nab their prey. Cattle egrets originally lived on the continent of Africa and spread to northeast South America in the 1870s. They began to move into new parts of the world and were first sighted in North America in 1941. They now live on every continent. The other two Missouri egrets, the snowy and great, do not normally follow cows. Q: I read your answer to a spider question in last December’s issue . . . My science teacher says that all spiders have venom. Is he wrong? Blair Dowling, age 15, Cape Girardeau A: Th
