Birds at Walden Ponds, possible juvenile Little Blue Heron

[Jeff Parks]

Hey all -

I went to Walden Ponds this morning to see if I could relocate some birds that I saw out there recently.  I was not able to find them, unfortunately (the Flycatcher and Mockingbird/Shrike).  I had a nice walk anyway, saw a few deer along with the usual birdy suspects.  There were a bunch of Snowy Egrets on Cottonwood Marsh when I arrived, so when I finally made my way around to Bass Pond and saw another one, I didn't think much of it.  While I was examining it, however, it had some things that made me think that it was not another Snowy.  The legs and feet were a greenish color, and the bill was not as dark as a Snow's bill should have been.  I watched it for a little while until some people with a dog came along and it flew off.  Shortly thereafter, I stopped to talk to another birder, and she mentioned that she and several other people had seen a juvenile Little Blue Heron at Walden within the last week or so.  It took me a minute to make the connection, but I was fairly certain that the bird I had seen would fit that description.  I didn't see exactly where the bird had flown off, so I decided against traipsing around the entire property again in search of one bird.
 
When I got home, I looked at recent eBird postings from Walden, and as luck would have it, Willem Van Vliet was out there yesterday, and took a picture of what he identified as a Great Egret.  You can see his picture on his eBird posting from yesterday here:  WvV's eBird list from August 15th.

Take a look and see what you think, is this a Little Blue Heron, or a Great Egret?  I am leaning towards LBHE based on what I saw (assuming that this is the same bird).  If it is indeed a LBHE, I probably should have made a second trip around, but it was getting past time for lunch, and my feet were tired.  

Other birds of interest were a group of seven Northern Shovelers, three Cinnamon Teal (larger beaks than Blue-Winged), and five Semipalmated Sandpipers.   The Ospreys on the back pond are about ready to leave the nest, the adults were pretty busy bringing fish to feed the young ones. 

Good birding -

Jeff Parks
Boulder

[Jack Bushong]

Hi,

Today my brother and I visited Walden Ponds in search of the heron/egret, and found a bird that has characteristics that seem to support a Little Blue Heron. The legs are definitively yellow, and the bill is bicolored (flesh pink and black). It was with a dispersed flock of Snowy Egrets resting on a spit of gravel and sand very near the boardwalk at Cottonwood Marsh. The birds flushed some time later due to the arrival of an adult Bald Eagle, but would presume they did not stray far. 

Link to image of heron: https://flic.kr/p/XwTNw7

[Jack Bushong]

Sorry, forgot signature.

Good Birding, 

Jack Bushong,

Louisville, CO

[Jeff Parks]

Yeah, that looks very much like what I saw out there today.  And it looks very similar to Willem's photo that was taken yesterday.  Ira Sanders chimed in, and he agrees that it looks like a Little Blue Heron as well. It looks like we have another "vagabond wanderer" in our midst ...

It would be pretty neat to see another Little Blue Heron in this neck of the woods, I managed to get up to Longmont last summer and see the one that was hanging around Rogers Grove Park for awhile.  That one was an adult, it didn't register with me immediately that this one might be a LBHE since it was all white.  But I had already traipsed all around the whole area, and I could smell lunch already ...

Jeff Parks

[Jeff Parks]

Well, it appears that the Saturday bird outing from the Wild Bird Company in Boulder was at Walden Ponds last weekend, and they photographed and identified this bird at that time.  Thanks to Leslie for forwarding this report to me!   The photos taken are pretty nice ones, check them out at Little Blue Heron at Walden Ponds.

I thought I might be missing something, as there is no mention of this bird on eBird from that outing yet as far as I could tell.  Anyway, it appears that multiple sightings/confirmations have been made on this bird, it is always nice to see something that is a little unusual around here.   It just reinforces my theory that I need to spend more time in the outdoors! 

Good Birding -

Jeff Parks

[Jane B]

Thanks, Jeff, I corrected our post on ebird.

Jane Baryames

On Wednesday, August 16, 2017 at 3:04:56 PM UTC-6, Jeff Parks wrote:

[Jeff Parks]

Monday update on the White Egret at Walden Ponds -

I went out this morning hoping to get another look at this bird, but it was conspicuously absent.  In fact, there were only a few Snowy Egrets on Cottonwood Marsh, and all of them had black legs and yellow feet.  I tried Bass Pond, Duck Pond and Ricky Weiser wetland, but there weren't any white egrets anywhere to be seen.  I dragged my scope and tripod around for over an hour hoping to see the green-legged egret, but didn't find it anywhere.  I guess that was my penance ...

Well, back to the egret saga ...  Steven Mlodinow brought up the point that a juvenile Little Blue Heron should have black wingtips. While these can be somewhat difficult to see, with the abundance of pictures taken of this green-legged Egret, those markings should have been captured in at least one of those pictures.  Unfortunately, nobody has reported seeing this critical ID marking on this bird, so I will have to conclude that this bird is a juvenile Snowy Egret with lighter legs and feet. The early clues led me to believe that it was a LBHE, ie leg/foot coloring and feeding behavior (standing quietly instead of running around), but I needed to follow up on all of the clues for a proper ID.  Oh well, SOMEBODY needs to run around with their hair on fire from time to time, I suppose.  I guess the positive aspect of this is that more people should now be aware of the differences between these two birds, and what things to look for to discern the differences between the two.  We don't get to see Little Blue Herons around here very often, but if one shows up in the future, hopefully I will know it when I see it.