Marshall Iliff sighting (of heron, that is)

Subject: Great White Heron in Fairhaven continues (26 Aug)
From: Miliff(AT)aol.com
Date: 27 Aug 2009 11:09am

Massbird,

I dropped down to Fairhaven yesterday (26 Aug) morning to look for the Great White Heron that Carolyn Longworth found last month. The first spot I checked was Edgewater Rd., which was where the most recent report came from. As soon as I arrived I spotted the bird feeding along the shoreline with houses well out to the right. The bird was in view for about 5 minutes (7:00-7:05) before flying back into a cove where it was hidden from view. I waited for another 30 minutes and when it did not reappear I tried to find a vantage from which I could see the bird, but failed. I returned at 8:30 and found the bird sitting in a tree, again well out to the right (south). Too distant for photos, but it provided good scope views.

I still find it fascinating that a relatively rare subspecies with an extremely restricted range in Florida, Cuba, and the Yucatan should occur in the Northeastern US with the frequency that it does. Virginia has ~4 inland records and 2 coastal, Maryland has 4, New Jersey has ~4, New York has 2-4, Rhode Island has one, Massachusetts now has 2, and Maine got its first this week. Records seem to be on a rapid rise. It remains uncertain to me if some (or all?) of these records could pertain to leucistic Great Blues and if field observations could ever conclusively eliminate that possibility. Thus far though, records are consistent with natural dispersal from south Florida or more distant breeding areas. Regardless, this is a neat bird, its taxonomic affinities (is it a species or a subspecies) may be someday revisited, and I certainly recommend that Massachusetts birders go see it and try to keep track of how long it stays. Congratulations for Carolyn's keen eye
in picking this bird out, which could have been passed off as a Great Egret to the unwary observer.

Other birds of interest in the area included: multiple Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows (Edgewater Rd.), Prairie Warbler and Warbling Vireo, both presumed migrants (Edgewater Rd.), Am. Oystercatcher and Willet (1; ssp. uncertain).

Best,

Marshall Iliff
miliff AT aol.com
West Roxbury, MA