Today, April 12, we saw our first egret for the year. I’m pretty sure it was a snowy egret. It was at the edge of a retention pond that is ringed with cattails, and it was fishing.
Personally, Elegante Mother and I feel that both the heron and this egret are a bit early, but that doesn’t make us any less happy to see them. While robins are generally a harbinger of spring in this area, the egrets returning is usually a signal that we are going to start see the weather warming.
It’s drizzly and damp, and rather chilly today. The skies are a sullen gray. It’s a good day to be inside, getting indoor chores done so that we will be free to go outside once the sun finds it’s way back.
We do have two birds that are content with this weather. For quite a number of years, we have had a pair of Mallard ducks come to visit in the spring. Papa duck keeps an eye out for danger while Mama duck Hoovers (as in vacuums) up any stray birdseed and corn she can find. Occasionally we will see Mama contentedly eating away, and wonder where her mate has gone. One day, Dear Husband told us that he has seen Papa duck sitting up on our roof, where he can apparently get a better view . We’ve enjoyed their visits. They are beautiful birds.
Arrrgh!!!
It's just my state of mind!
The Snowy and American egrets can be difficult to tell apart from a distance, can’t they? You’ve been watching them for enough year that I trust your judgment on them, though. Poor egrets suffered during the early years of the European invasion of the continent. Their delicate, fluffy plumes were much desired for hat adornments.
Our neighbor whose fence blew down on Valentine’s day (no progress in getting it fixed), has a swimming pool that has a winter-time covering over it. With the rains that we’ve had during the last few weeks, the cover has a goodly pool of water atop it. A pair of Mallards give every indication of settling in. The hen sits on the edging of the pool cover (that lays flat on the deck) for hours at a time–giving every appearance of brooding. She and the drake can be seen swimming in the water atop the pool cover, a little each day. Mallards are beautiful, but they are proliferating to an alarming degree–around here, at least. Good luck with your spring birding!
OH, Cop Car, you put me to shame. I THINK we saw a snowy egret. We were driving by the long retention pond, so we just had a brief glimpse. I’ll have to try to get a closer look at some of our visitors to try to pin down which we are seeing. Do their ranges overlap? Perhaps we have a few of each. I’ll have to see what’s being printed locally about our beautiful visitors.
Oddly, we don’t have a lot of ducks in this area. We have a lot of geese, so the occasional mallard is rather fun to see. These two have definitely claimed our yard as their feeding ground and everybody else better know it!
In many places the ranges of the two egrets overlap and, in our area, we also have cattle egrets. The American egret is the largest of the three, with yellowish bill and dark legs and feet. The snowy egret is about 2/3 the size of the American, has a dark bill, dark legs, but yellow feet. The cattle egret is the smallest, with yellowish bill, legs, and feet. (We shan’t even go into the immature little blue heron which is white or the great white heron which may be extinct in the US, by now.) Just enjoy watching the birds. They probably don’t care what you think they are!
It seems to me that we have both sizes of birds, Cop Car. I’ll have to start watching for bill color. “Sibley” makes the point that the bills and the feet differ, but we never get to see their feet.