Saturday, August 22, 2015

In Search of Egrets


A Great Egret steps carefully while wading in the Smith River Estuary this morning searching for his breakfast.

Most people probably view our volunteer work with Western Snowy Plovers as a birding experience, and thus would be aghast at the idea of Jeanette and I going birding before going to work most days. But that is exactly what happened this morning.  After a quick breakfast we packed up our gear and Buster and made a quick trip down to the Smith River to one of our favorite eBird Hot Spots, Stables Road, for some pre-work birding.  Here is a link to our bird list and some photos.

The reason for our trip to Stables Road is a fellow birder has twice reported seeing a Snowy Egret here, which is quite an unusual sighting.  A Snowy Egret is quite distinct in comparison with other egrets with it's black bill and legs and it's yellow feet.  Although we were able to find 30 Egrets as in the photo, all had yellow bills and black feet indicating Great Egrets.  We had so much fun we are far from discouraged and plan on a repeat trip in the morning.  

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