Great Egrets spread over Northampton County ~ July 18, 2021

With the finding of Roseate Spoonbills, Tricolored and Little Blue Herons in the state, I decided to check some of the local retention ponds on Sunday afternoon. My first stop was the Hollo Road retention pond. There, a Great Egret stood out like a sore thumb in the mostly-empty pond.

My next stop was at the West Gremar Road retention pond where five Great Egrets were present among Canada Geese and a Spotted Sandpiper. The first photo captures three of them.

The nearby Trio Farms Boulevard retention ponds held another Great Egret and a young Great Blue Heron.

On the way back home, I checked out Green Pond and found another Great Egret in the retention pond along Farmersville Road.

So, it was a pretty productive day for Great Egrets but, unfortunately, there were no big pink birds among them.

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Short-billed Dowitcher at St. Luke's Anderson Campus ~ July 9, 2021

Jon Mularczyk forwarded some photos of a dowitcher that Kurt Zimmerman had found earlier at the retention pond area behind St. Luke's Anderson Campus. I headed down there and checked the pond, but the heavy rain that we had the night before had filled it to where there was no muddy shoreline. Adam Miller arrived and, after looking at the photos, we realized that the bird was photographed along the walking path. As we headed over there, I looked to the right and the bird was there, walking along the grass by the edge of the field. We watched and photographed it as a few more birders showed up. It favored a small rain puddle where it was pulling out earthworms and chowing down.

A couple hours later, people walking the area with their dogs caused the bird to make a few flights around the pond, but it eventually ended up back at its favorite puddle. When I left, the bird was still there.

After getting back home and processing my photos, I agree with others that this was a 'hendersoni' Short-billed Dowitcher.

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