yes, that is quite an impressive number, considering what was there just hours before. my wife kirsten and i were there at high tide from around 930am until 1pm. the cumulative sum total of herons was far less than shane's numbers, even when taking in what we saw throughout the refuge and not just the one spot shane refers to. i wonder what pulled shane's birds in since that was, as i recall, dead-low tide.
we also saw one little blue and small numbers of great and snowy egrets, but no tri-colored. of course there was the usual collection of waterfowl on both ponds, as expected, which kept us entertained. our most interesting sighting of the day however, was that of two adult n.gannet off the southwest side of the west pond. the birds were quite active. we eventually lost sight of them in the heat haze.
away from JBWR, the only other birds of note we might report was the continuing flock of 6 harlequin ducks at jones' inlet's west side, point lookout, as viewed from fireman's park.
John Askildsen, Millbrook, New York
| On the the South end of the East Pond between 6:45 and 7:20 this evening, what started as a small flock of 8 Snowy Egrets grew into a sizable 38. I'm pretty sure that is my high count for this early date. There were also 4 Little Blue Herons , 9 Great Egrets, 2 Glossy Ibis and a Tri-colored Heron, and 3 Blue-winged Teal. Shane Blodgett Brooklyn NY |
