I received a report from Sara Jane Hymes that on Sunday morning (11/13) while on her morning walk (for exercise, not birding), there had been an unidentified white egret hunkered among gulls and geese in the horse pasture located to the east of Pine Tree Road, about opposite the Oxley Equestrian Center (~220 Pine Tree Rd).
Unfortunately, no pictures were taken and I learned about it so late in the day that there were only a few gulls remaining by the time Diane and I stopped by yesterday afternoon. There were two other bird watchers who had stopped at the time that Sara Jane walked by (who also were without binoculars) who recognized the unusual bird as an egret, and were trying to determine leg color to narrow down the identification to species. Given the field location and habitat, historical records, and knowledge that there had been a Cattle Egret reported from Armitage Road in Wayne County, NY (north of us) as recently as 11/10; and, after having gotten a general description from Sara Jane, it seems plausible that this was a Cattle Egret (possibly even the same individual sighted up near Montezuma recently). A brief check of that Pine Tree Road horse pasture again this morning resulted in only a flock of gulls which were mostly Herring Gulls and a few Ring-billed Gulls, but included a single Lesser Black-backed Gull (standing at the periphery of the flock). Also, there was a single Great Black-backed Gull atop the Oxley Equestrian Center building. A small group of Canada Geese were foraging near the gull flock in the field as well. Sincerely, Chris T-H -- Christopher T. Tessaglia-Hymes — Field Applications Engineer K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, Cornell Lab of Ornithology Cornell University, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, New York 14850, USA Work: +1 607-254-2418 Mobile: +1 607-351-5740 FAX: +1 607-254-1132 https://bioacoustics.cornell.edu -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
