Two Great Egrets in Agassiz

[murraybrown]

Around 1:00 today I spotted two GREG along Maria Slough just south of highway 7. A juvenile Great Blue Heron was obviously quite agitated at their presence and rarely left them alone. During the 15 minutes I watched them they seldom had more than a minute or two before he would once again put the run on them. Eventually one of the birds headed out to the southwest toward Chilliwack and I followed it with my binoculars until it was out of sight.
I took a few pictures with my iPhone but of course the results were very disappointing.

[Gord]

Murray, a great find and not at all common to find more than one at once here. To share part of our chat from earlier for the benefit of others, we do have a record of two being seen at once a few years back at the Chehalis Estuary. One was seen for several days, but the first day two were seen at the same time by a competent naturalist. Similar to this observation, one got harassed by a Great Blue Heron and headed off into the distace not to be seen again.

IMG_1940 by Geordie LaForge, on Flickr

[expiallyd]

I just saw a great egret on Matsqui Prairie (Thursday Sept 30 4:45 pm) - possibly one of the ones that you saw the other day, Murray. I am not usually very good at finding anything unusual, but a large white bird standing right at the side of the road was pretty hard to miss. I did not think to look for a second one ...
On Beharrell Road, across from the DND property at the point where the road crosses the creek near the T-junction at Fore Road. I also saw the kingfisher that usually patrols this little waterway, so it's possible that it might chase the egret off.

[Chris]

That's awesome Anne. Definitely possible there are three in the area.

Hoping to check Saturday for it.

[butterfly]

Wow! Good work, Murray! And Anne!

[nickinthegarden]

I went to look for Anne's Great Egret this morning with no luck. A Great Blue Heron was perched in the creek near the road and on the other side a River Otter was messing about. I drove around for awhile checking out various ditches and creeks and fields with no sign of the great big white bird, I did see half dozen Turkey Vultures at the Page Rd entrance to Matsqui Trail Park, both a Red-tail Hawk and a Cooper's Hawk were perched on powerlines. No sign of it at the northern end of Willband Creek Park, there was still a dozen Cedar Waxwings hanging out.

[Chris]

Egret is present on Bell road just north of Fore road

[nickinthegarden]

I went to check it out around Noon. I arrived at the creek that crosses Bell just south of Fore to see it flushed and was chased briefly by a Great Blue Heron east. The Egret swung north crossed Fore and it landed just north in a field off of Bell. By the time I drove over there it flew over to another creek which crosses Bell and is north of Fore, it was west of the road.

[nickinthegarden]

We got some dry weather this morning (Sunday) so I went to see if could get better images. This morning when I found it, it was in a marsh/creek just off of Bell Rd. south of Fore Rd. It gave me a good look while it was feeding and then took off right towards me (not at all like a Great Blue Heron) flying east then went north and landed across Fore Rd in a farm field by the time I left I saw it take off again and head somewhat south but still low, so it is likely still in the area.
Way too close! by Nick, on Flickr

[Chris]

Really nice photo Nick. Glad you got to see it.

[Gord]

One of Murray’s egrets is on Seabird Island from a photo just sent to me. I don’t think the same bird as recently seen in Abbotsford.

[Dave]

Great Egret continues. Thanks Murray!