Today I learned of - and eventually saw - a regionally rare Snowy Egret along the Wildlife Drive at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge.
I first learned of it from a text rare bird alert from Mark Miller at 10:25am that it was “last seen at Seneca Flats,” but I wondered about Mark’s use of passive voice and the lack of any picture from this avid photographer. As I prepared to look for the bird there was not yet any eBird report from Mark either. But there was an eBird report from earlier this morning by David Kennedy, who takes gorgeous photos and seems to either find, re-find, or document most of the rarities around Montezuma. He included 5 pictures with the comment that it was “Feeding along east shore of Seneca Flats,” and in this case it was a re-find because he said it was “seen and photographed by Bob S. yesterday.” This appears to be the first documented record of Snowy Egret in the Cayuga Lake Basin this year, and as I try to maintain First Records records list, I’m looking for some help. Who is Bob S? Can I find the photo and record of his sighting? Where did he see it? At this point I’m not trying to verify the ID, I’m just looking for the standard information and credit that I include on the list. Today, thanks to text rare bird alert messages, several additional people saw this small, active egret at various places along the Wildlife Drive’s first straightaway, and the adjacent Seneca River. Generally it progressed north from Seneca Flats. It’s hard to say where it will be tomorrow, but I hope that, if it sticks around in publicly accessible places, folks continue to share its whereabouts so others can see this beautiful bird. - - Dave Nutter -- (copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") Cayugabirds-L List Info: NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsWELCOME_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsRULES_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave_DOT_htm ARCHIVES: 1) mail-archive_DOT_com/cayugabirds-l@cornell_DOT_edu/maillist_DOT_html 2) surfbirds_DOT_com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) aba_DOT_org/birding-news/ Please submit your observations to eBird: ebird_DOT_org/content/ebird/ --
