Hi Bill, Chip, and all, This is an interesting question. My first thought was that I’ve frequently seen Great Egrets migrating by day along the outer coast of Long Island, but examination of my records reveals fewer specific instances than I expected. The way I keep my records, I usually make a note of active migration, but I’m sure that I don’t always succeed in annotating all such records.
For what they are worth, here are summaries of my records of diurnal-migrant Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons on Long Island, from 1996-2011: Great Egret Spring 4 records, 12 birds, 31 March-19 April Fall 2 records, 18 birds, 5 & 30 Oct On 5 Oct 08, 8 Great Egrets were seen migrating along the outer beach on a day when 97 GBHE were also observed migrating in a similar manner: https://picasaweb.google.com/109808209543611018404/LongIslandMiscellany2008#5253791881879454690 On 30 Oct 11, 7 Great Egrets were migrating e to w together over the ocean; 1 was migrating e to w along Fire Island Inlet; and 2 flew nw to se together, heading out to sea! Great Blue Heron Spring 8 records, 42 birds, 16 Mar-26 Apr Fall 20 records, 167 birds, 15 Aug-3 Dec No fewer than 10 of 20 fall records and 151 of 167 fall birds were observed during the period 2-29 October. The single bird seen on 3 Dec 06 was 40-50 miles offshore. This record also reminds me of a Great Blue Heron I saw migrating offshore at Cox’s Ladge, RI, on 25 Nov 00, and of 27 birds I saw migrating at Block Island, RI, on 7 Nov 03. On the one hand, my numbers of records and individuals are much higher for Great Blue Heron than for Great Egret; on the other hand, the potential source population of Great Blue Herons north of Long Island is vastly greater than that of Great Egrets, and thus, from my own observations, I would be reluctant to conclude that these species’ migration styles differ markedly in this region. Shai Mitra Bay Shore ________________________________ From: bounce-63126833-11143...@list.cornell.edu [bounce-63126833-11143...@list.cornell.edu] on behalf of williamwatso...@aol.com [williamwatso...@aol.com] Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2012 8:42 PM In a message dated 8/15/2012 8:00:05 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, williamwatso...@aol.com writes: Hello New York Birders, Below is a thread on Great Egret night migration on Geneseebirds. Have you seen egrets migrating? Was it day or night? Hawk Watchers, based you experience how many Great Egrets do you see following the migration flight line compared to Great Blue Herons? Please respond. Chip Weseloh chip.wese...@ec.gc.ca<mailto:chip.wese...@ec.gc.ca> and I would like to know. Thank you, Bill Watson ________________________________ Out of respect for others and the environment, the College of Staten Island is a 100% Tobacco-Free Campus. -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
