May 22 1982. Woodstock ON. My 30+ year-old, battered and faded Field Guide to the Birds East of the Rockies by Roger Tory Peterson rarely sees the light of day any more. It used to accompany me everywhere and was irreplaceable in developing my confidence in the field. Eventually the Peterson guide surrendered its position of supremacy among bird guides to the National Geographic Field Guide and more recently the Sibley Guides; but I was slow to give it up. I still suggest to novice birders that Peterson will solve 90% of your bird i.d problems.
It fell open today to the page of illustrations of white herons: Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Cattle Egret, Little Blue Heron and Reddish Egret. I was reminded of a May morning thirty years ago when I explored around a reservoir and surrounding countryside near my wife’s parents’ home. Being mid-May I’m sure there was much to see and plenty of confusion in my mind, I don’t recall. But I can still vividly remember cautiously approaching a small watery inlet and finding, to my surprise and delight, a small white heron. Save and except as notable rarities, white herons played almost no part in the avifauna of Ontario 30 years ago. I had no confident idea of what I was looking at but knew the list of possibilities was short and that I needed to note as many field marks as I could in whatever amount of time the bird would allow me. An all white plumage doesn’t take long to commit to memory, but I remember noting long plumes cascading down its back. It didn’t tolerate my presence for many moments before taking flight and as it did so I made note of its bright yellow feet. Once it had flown out of sight I turned to my trusty Peterson and immediately found his note accompanying the Snowy Egret entry: “Note the golden slippers.”
I remember being breathless with excitement at what had presented itself so perfectly, I remember trying to explain to others the significance of it and reporting my sighting to local birders and how little they seemed to care. Perhaps they were envious, perhaps they thought I was surely mistaken. It doesn’t matter, that Snowy Egret was my Bird of the Day; maybe even bird of the year. And I never fail to remember that day whenever I see a Snowy Egret now three decades later. They are quite common a little south and east of us, particularly along the Atlantic shore, but they seem to give the Great Lakes a miss.[slickr-flickr tag=”snowyegret”]