Greetings --

The Great Egret was still on Lake Lois in Lacey at 1610 this
afternoon.

I had it under observation from 1550 until 1613. The bill showed no
black or smudging; the color was a yellow-orange with a streak of
yellow leading forward from the eye. There were no apparent plumes in
the tail, but it's probably late enough in the season that all the
adults have lost their plumes. Some descriptions and/or illustrations
seem to indicate the juveniles have little or no smudging on the bill
while the adults do. So this individual may be a juvenile. Or not.

As noted by Scott, it was stalking in the waters of the eastside Lake
Lois pond. Mostly it was stalking around and through the patchy bed
of Yellow Water-lilies. For a time it was watching a Carp feeding
near the surface. At 1607 ir caught a fish and flew ashore onto the
muddy exposed pond bottom where it manipulated the fish (~2/3 its
bill length) and soon swallowed it. By 1611 is was again stalking in
the water.

For those of you who have not explored Lake Lois Park, there is a
trail which winds around the perimeter of the westerly pond, with a
couple of park benches placed to face the water. Lake Lois is east of
"downtown" Lacey, and is bisected by Carpenter Road between Martin
Way and Pacific Avenue.


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Douglas Canning
Olympia, Washington, USA
dcanning at nisquallyestuary.org
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