Thank you Tim, this is very interesting and it's a little disappointing that nobody has replied or commented further. The 'egret' in the photos is clearly a Great White HERON. I do hope someone lets the observer (Paul McPartland) know so he can amend his checklist and extend the timeline in the permanent record.
The full extend of this (unprecedented?) invasion of Gulf Coast specialists including Wood Stork, Roseate Spoonbill, Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Swallow-tailed Kite, and now, Great White Heron, is slowly becoming apparent. I've seen some speculation on possible causes but little in the way of hard data or convincing arguments. I'm also curious why some wetland species of similar range (e.g. Anhinga and Limpkin) were seemingly unrepresented. To be fair, there has been a lot of weird stuff this year including the vanishing Bonaparte's Gulls raised by Derek Rogers some weeks ago, and the various summering King Eiders dotted around. To me, these events all seem like topics worthy of discussion on what is supposed to be THE State-wide list. Angus Wilson New York City On Mon, Oct 11, 2021 at 8:04 PM Timothy Healy <tp...@cornell.edu> wrote: > > The lingering Great White Heron at the Marshlands Conservancy in Rye > continued today, roosting in the trees along the northern shore of Marie’s > Neck during the evening high tide. After several sporadic sightings between > late August and September, the bird has now been seen consistently on a > daily basis since October 3rd. It’s also worth noting that this > long-staying individual has apparently been staying for even longer than we > initially realized: this checklist from August 1st shows photos that > include the Great White, almost 3 full weeks before Phil Jeffrey’s original > report to the listserv. > > https://ebird.org/checklist/S92627952 > > Intriguing that this vagrant evidently showed up around the same time as > many of the other southern waders that irrupted north this summer but has > stuck around so much longer, albeit with extensive gaps between > observations. > > Cheers! > -Tim H > -- > *NYSbirds-L List Info:* > Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm> > Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm> > Subscribe, Configuration and Leave > <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> > *Archives:* > The Mail Archive > <http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> > Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> > ABA <http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01> > *Please submit your observations to **eBird* > <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>*!* > -- > -- Angus Wilson -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm 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://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
