Subject: [Tweeters] Ridgefield NWR 9/2: Snowy Egret
Date: Sep 2 18:03:14 2006
From: Mark Miller - snowyowl98683 at msn.com


Hi Everyone--

Today 9/2, Marcia Marvin and I made a quick trip on the tour road through
the River 'S' Unit of Ridgefield NWR. In the slough on your left as you
leave the forest, about 2/3 of the way around, we saw a bird we identified
as a juvenile SNOWY EGRET. We eliminated Little Blue Heron as a possibility
based on the combination of yellow legs (Little Blue's legs should be more
greenish at this age), yellow on the culmen, a lower mandible that was over
50% black (Little Blue's bill is usually 3/4 gray in both mandibles), and
rather animated feeding behavior (Little Blue is noticably calmer when
feeding). The yellow lores and smaller size ruled out other white herons,
but Little Blue sometimes has yellow lores. We followed the bird over to
Rest Lake, about 3/4 of the way around. It was not visible from the blind.

While we were there, we ran into Ruth and Patrick Sullivan, who were trying
their best to get photo documentation. We left them with the bird around
4:30pm.

Mark Miller
Pleasanton, CA/Portland, OR