Hello Birders,

We observed and photographed the Snowy Egret at the Ridgefield NWR on the 2nd of September and upon first glance the bird was obviously a small sized bird,where it stood near a Great Egret. We can only comment on what we know on the bird,despite our lack of experience with Little Blue Heron. We went in hopes of the bird was a Little Blue Heron as originally reported and thus wouldn't have gone for a Snowy Egret. As much as we tried we just could not turn the bird into a Little Blue Heron after watching the bird 4 hours.The Ridgefield bird overall looked in all structure and size than the adult Snowy Egret we photographed at the Nisqually NWR previously. The Ridgefield NWR bird was however a juvenile bird due to the yellowish legs and feet,yellow lores and paler bill. In all the 4 hours we watched this bird it was most often observed further away from the road so we weren't able to get the best photos of it. We can also say that it is hard to get a full perspective of the Ridgefield bird going soley by looking at photos of it. We were joined by 2 well-known birders from Oregon and California, being Mark Miller and Marcia Marvin,as we exchanged opinions of the bird. One characteristic that always matched was the behavior of the bird and in many references we have read it states that Little Blue Herons feed slow,"stealth-like" and methodical. Now unless this is not correct and Little Blue Herons can feed quickly and energetically then all these books are wrong! The bird did not always feed actively,but most often and in many ways the same as how the bird behaved at the Nisqually NWR. These were many people during our visit that had cameras with big lens,but they told us the bird was always too far away for a superb photos. Perhaps if someone was there and "digiscoped" the bird it would have made the difference,but maybe not. Distance seems to be always the main factor when photographing a rare bird!

The bill of the bird cannot be judged correctly in our photos either by the lack of a good angle or lighting,but what we saw of the bill was a fairly thin,straight bill with a dark tip extending a short ways,then continuing pale on the upper mandible and darkish on the lower mandible. The amount of dark on he lower mandible was about 50% as mentioned in our original posting. The bill structure was not as short and as thick,as a Little Blue Heron would appear. The bird also showed obvious yellowish legs in all our views of the bird,but these cannot be seen that well in our photos too due to the lighting. The legs were this color,as were the feet,which most often appeared only muddy due to being covered by mud. In flight the bird was rather energetic and quick similar to the Nisqually NWR bird

The bird did not show any dark areas on the primaries and were completely and uniform with the remainder of the bird. The amount of yellow on the lores extended from the from of the eye to the base of the bill and are quite visible in our photos. We have only observed Little Blue Heron once in Washington,which was of an immature bird at Crockett Lake on Whidbey Island in late October 1989. During our observation of this bird it never moved very much at all,but always appeared heavier in structure than a Snowy Egret.

In conclusion and as we stated in our original posting of the Ridgefield bird how likely is it that a juvenile Little Blue Heron could appear in Washington or anywhere in the Northwest,as well as the bird being a hybrid? The bird to us just looks like a pure species in all aspects. It should be considered what is most likely to occur and if it was a juvenile Little Blue Heron,where are the adult birds? The theory of a juvenile Snowy Egret seems most likely since adult birds have shown up recently,although at much different locations. Snowy Egrets could very well breed in our area,but remain unnoticed. In August 2004 two immature Snowy Egrets were noted at the same location at the Ridgefield NWR and remained there for a short while. It would be most great if the bird was indeed a Little Blue Heron and go on the record for Washington,specifically for the age of the bird. We are willing to post any or all of Wilson Cady's photos of the bird on our website so EVERYONE can judge for themselves about the Ridgefield bird.

These are just some of our thoughts on this matter.



Ruth and Patrick Sullivan
Fircrest,WA
godwit513 at msn.com