Today I spent the last three hours of daylight (approx. 4:30-7:30 PM) observing Great Egrets in the vicinity of Port Maitland (Haldimand Co.) on the Grand River just before it empties into Lake Erie. On my arrival, I noted 2 egrets in the ponds right at (south of) the Innophos plant and 4 others at the Mosiac Wetland Development Ponds (Cell A) on Rymer Road about a half km before the Plant. By 5:00 PM there were 9 egrets at these latter ponds. To make a long story short, by 7:11 PM (6 minutes before sunset) there were 35 egrets huddled mostly together on a small isthmus of dry land between two areas of water and it appeared the birds were hunkered down for the evening. Over the next 4 minutes, however, all the egrets got up and flew about 4-500m to the north to Cell D where they landed in what appeared to be at another shoreline situation; I could see them set their wings to land but I could not see the exact habitat in which they landed. Three other egrets later flew to this area as well for a total of 38 egrets roosting in the area.
While many species of communally-roosting birds are known to form "pre-roosts", which are temporary gathering areas, before their flight to a final roost, I have never seen an egret pre-roost contain such a high percentage (92%) of the eventual roosting birds as this one did. To the best of my knowledge, this egret roosting area has not been previously identified on Ontbirds. Cheers, Chip Directions: From Dunnville, Ontario, take Haldimand Road 3 (Not Ontario Road 3) towards Stromness and Lowbanks. Travel through Stromness and turn right on the paved road immediately after house # 1656 (on your right). Continue down this road (Rymer Rd., which leads to Port Maitland but there is no sign coming from Dunnville) for 1.4 km until you see a large sign for Mosiac Wetland Development Project and a number 7 on a locked gate on your right. These are the wetlands where the egrets pre-roosted and roosted. Good luck! _______________________________________________ ONTBIRDS is presented by the Ontario Field Ornithologists - the provincial birding organization. Send bird reports to [email protected] For information about ONTBIRDS including how to unsubscribe visit http://www.ofo.ca/site/page/view/information.ontbirdssetup
