a remarkable sighting

My regular morning round takes me onto the dock that juts out into Weesuck Creek just beyond the outflow from our marsh and pond. From here, there is a clear view of the creek's west shoreline up to Aldrich Boatyard. As I was scanning the area, my eye caught a Snowy Egret in the mud (it was dead low tide) just below the bulkhead at the end of Weeksuck Avenue working its way on the flat toward the boatyard. The bird had two (maybe three) long streaming plumes coming down from the back of its head to its back. That got my attention. Snowy Egrets do not have long white plumes.

I quickly started to head over there for a closer look but, almost immediately, the bird took off. I watched it fly out and the, swinging past the dock, down the creek. It was a good-sized bird (bigger than the average Snowy) with a good-sized thick black bill that had a lot of yellow at its base continuing yellow onto the lores. In flight, in bright sunshire, I could see its jet black legs, brightly contrasting yellow feet and, yes, streaming white plumes. To repeat, Snowy Egrets do not have long white plumes. LITTLE EGRETS have long white plumes. As I watched, it flew out to the mouth of the creek and around the end of Pine Neck.

This is the second time I have seen a LITTLE EGRET (Egretta garzetta) here. The first time was on April 25, 1999 when a bird appeared briefly on our marsh (another one was seen on the same day in Delaware). Little Egret is widespread in Europe, Africa and Asia and I have seen it in often in Europe (and also Africa). This bird is NOT on the official New York list. The bird I saw in 1999 was not photographed and I was the only one to see it and that's not considered good enough to add a new bird to the state list.

Doubters of the 1999 bird insisted that Snowy Egrets can sometimes have the long plumes. Well, maybe. Such birds are probably Little/Snowy hybrids anyway. Also, as the doubters did not point out, Reef Heron is also a possibility; the three form a superspecies. Of course, these possibilities cannot be entirely ruled out. It is highly likely that many (accepted) rare bird sightings involve hybrids as the introgression of hybrid genes does not always produce visible evidence. If you could get a feather you could, I suppose, do DNA analysis. How much introgression do you need before the bird stops being a species and starts being a hybrid?

In any case, the likelihood that the bird is a Little Egret is probably at least as good as its being a hybrid, let alone a Reef Heron! All the East Coast states have accepted records of Little Egret which has colonized Barbados and occurs regularly from South America to Canada (whether hybrids or pure Egretta garzetta is not known in most cases)! Why not New York State?

At any rate, I have a bird on my local list which is not on the New York State list -- and now twice!

Eric Salzman