[Maine-birds] TWO LITTLE EGRETS - Gilsland Farm, Falmouth, 2 May

It was a fairly damp bird walk at Maine Audubon's Gilsland Farm in Falmouth this morning but a few good birds helped keep us warm. We spotted one Little Egret with a Snowy along the edge of the river, downstream from the West Meadow. They eventually worked their way upriver to the North Meadow - this is typical foraging behavior of egrets at this site, moving upriver from the Macworth Flats as the tide rises, and up Skitterygusset Creek at high tide. We caught back up with the first and soon found a SECOND Little Egret further up in the marsh off the north side of the North Meadow. One of these birds has "courtship" or "high breeding" colors, showing pinkish-red (maroon) lores. Earl Wilcher posted photos of a Little Egret from Gilsland Farm yesterday on the MAINE Birds Facebook Group (closed group but those with access can see the photo here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MAINEBirds/permalink/2260927360656020/) showing gray-green lores. I suspected it was just the first bird coming out of "courtship" but now seems likely it was this second bird. Our view today was too distant to reliably tell the lore color on the distant bird.

Other highlights were a lingering American Tree Sparrow at the Discovery Room feeders and my first Black-throated Green Warbler of the year. A nice prompt to send a reminder that Maine Audubon's Warbler Walks start next Monday, May 6th. I'll be leading free walks at Evergreen Cemetery, Monday through Thursday, and at Capisic Pond on Fridays, from 7AM to 9AM until May 17th.

Here is the list from today's walk, including some pretty low-quality shots of the two egrets: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S55665560

Good birding,


Doug Hitchcox
Maine Bird Atlas - Outreach Coordinator
Maine Audubon - Staff Naturalist
207-781-2330 x237
dhitchcox@maineaudubon.org


--
Maine birds mailing list
maine-birds@googlegroups.com
http://groups.google.com/group/maine-birds
https://sites.google.com/site/birding207
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Maine birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to maine-birds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.