Hello Tweets,

Today my mother and I located up to 2 immature Snowy Egrets at Rest Lake at the River S Unit of the Ridgefield NWR in Clark Co. at 3pm. We obtained photographs of both birds together,as well as single birds with a Great Egret for comparison,but due to the distance the photos are not of the best quality,but are proof of their existence. We birded the River S Unit of the Ridgefield NWR between 12:30pm-4pm and upon our first drive around the "loop" located a single Snowy Egret at Rest Lake foraging amongst 6 much larger Great Egrets,then continuing along the southern portion of Rest Lake were unable to relocate the bird until we came upon a roosting flock of Great Egrets near the entrance kiosk. At this point the bird was quickly separated from the flock of 70 Great Egrets until it flew off alone back towards Rest Lake. We decided to take another drive around back to Rest Lake to attempt better looks at the Snowy Egret and upon arriving back there located and photographed 2 Snowy Egrets together along the southern portion of the "loop" bordering Rest Lake. The time now was just after 3pm and soon Dave Hayden and Sherry Thiel arrived and also saw both birds from a small pull-off along the road. We watched both birds together for about 20 minutes until one bird flew out into thicker marsh vegetation,then the other bird remained for some time until they joined each other and flew off shortly to the northwest and landed in a somewhat hidden canal bordering Rest Lake. This was the first time in WA that my mother and I have encountered more than 1 Snowy Egret at a time,so it made the sighting even more special.

We remained scoping from the pull-off,but only got brief and limited glimpses of both birds,as they sneaked around the reedy vegetation for a limited time. We remained at the location until shortly before 4pm,but we never did see the birds again as skies began to get much darker,then as we left the refuge the first rains of the day began turning heavy at times to Tacoma. The Snowy Egrets were quite elusive at times,as they would fly into dense reedy vegetation,but when out in the open were easy to observe so much time may be needed in searching for them beyond just driving the "loop" casually. We encountered a total of 112 Great Egrets with two main groups noted including a roosting congregation observed along the first portion of the "loop" near the entrance kiosk and a feeding group at Rest Lake with additional good numbers of Great Blue Herons. Only a few of the Great Egrets came in and flew off from the direction of Sauvie Island and since Rest Lake is very low currently it offers good feeding to many birds. Large numbers of waterfowl and waterbirds were also noted,primarily at Rest Lake including Mallards,Am.Coots,Gadwall,Cinnamon Teal,Green-winged Teal,Wood Ducks,Pied-billed Grebes,Blue-winged Teal,Hooded Merganser,Am.Wigeon, and Northern Pintail in that relative order of abundance. Good numbers of gulls were also observed at Rest Lake,primarily of Ring-billed Gulls with lesser numbers of California Gulls and only a few Glaucous-winged Gulls along with 2 Caspian Terns.

In addition our rewarding visit to the River S Unit yielded 14 species of shorebirds from two main locations,including in the large muddy area north of the maintenance road and from muddy areas within Rest Lake and along the canal bordering the main road(between the photo blind and the last grove of Oregon Ash trees). Other highlights from the River S Unit of Ridgefield NWR included the following:

10 Am.Bitterns
2 Green Herons
5 Ruddy Ducks
18 Turkey Vultures
2 Osprey
10 Northern Harriers
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
2 Cooper's Hawks
4 Am.Kestrels
4 Semipalmated Plovers
73 Greater Yellowlegs
58 Lesser Yellowlegs
2 Solitary Sandpipers
3 Semipalmated Sandpipers
103 Western Sandpipers
247+ Least Sandpipers
11 Baird's Sandpipers
3 Short-billed Dowitchers
103 Long-billed Dowitchers
12 Wilson's Snipes
1 Wilson's Phalarope
6 Red-necked Phalaropes
18 Vaux's Swifts
1 Red-breasted Sapsucker
14 Western Wood Pewees
15+ Purple Martins
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 House Wren
1 Yellow Warbler
1 Black-headed Grosbeak


Earlier in the day we stopped and checked Kress Lake(accessed off of I-5 at Lower Kalama River Rd. in Cowlitz Co.)and began our day off with a nice assortment of passerines (after combining the imitation of a Northern Saw-whet Owl and "pishing")including the following highlights:

2 Downy Woodpeckers
1 Olive-sided Flycatcher
2 Western Wood Pewees
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
3 Warbling Vireos
7 Yellow Warblers
2 Black-throated Gray Warblers
2 Wilson's Warblers
2 Western Tanagers

Nearby, a single Green Heron and a Solitary Sandpiper were noted from a series of settling ponds,as well as a Osprey hunting over Kress Lake. Also of note for the day were 2 separate "kettles" of Turkey Vultures noted including a group of 34 birds along I-5 just north of Woodland and a group of 12 birds along I-5 south of Woodland.



Good birding,

Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit at worldnet.att.net