On Tue, 10 Feb 1998, SCN User wrote:
> On Tue, 10 Feb 1998, Courtney Sherwood wrote:
>
> > Did anyone else see the Great Egret hanging around the mud flats
> > in Grays Harbor County? I saw it on January 17th and I'm still amazed.
>
> (with *interesting* weather all the way), we spotted TWO Great Egrets in
> the marshy areas along Highway 105, about one mile west of the Highway 105
> of the trees. This was my first Great Egret in Washington.
>

Egrets have been conspicuous in the Portland/Vancouver area this winter,
even more so than the last few winters where their numbers have increased.
On the Portland CBC this year, we quintupled our record high for Great
Egret, going from 12 to 63, including 45 in one flock (not scattered
foraging birds, a flock all in one location). I regularly see egrets near
Vancouver Lake and Sauvie Island and environs most of the winter (had 11
in about 10 minutes last Saturday at Scappoose Bottoms just north of
Sauvie Is.). The're even popping up at odd places in the Willamette
Valley.

It is certainly nice to see that one of the prime hunted-for-plume species
is bouncing back. RK
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ray Korpi "[On the corpse] sat a huge seagull, busily
Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA gorging itself with the horrible flesh, its bill
rkorpi at clark.edu and talons deep buried, and its white
President, Oregon Field plumage spattered all over with blood."
Ornithologists --Edgar Allan Poe, _Narrative_of_
**Inquiries on Oregon birds Arthur_Gordon_Pym_
always welcome**