On September 28, 2003, I was on my way to church on Sunday morning. We were traveling down a large road and happened to look at one subdivision's ornamental ponds to see if there were any herons present. We occasionally see Great Blues and Great Egrets in similar ponds. What we (my mom and I) saw was a blue-gray heron that was wading waist deep in the pond. It had a rufous neck and it was distinctively smaller than a Great Egret or G. Blue Heron. I had read enough about them to instantly identify it as a Reddish Egret, a medium-sized heron (about 30 inches) of the Caribbean and Southern US coastline north to the Carolinas. I read that there are only about 2,000 pairs in the US.
What a saltwater subtropical heron was doing in freshwater near the Great Lakes I have no clue. I was wondering if anyone else had any evidence of Reddish Egrets in Northern Illinois.
Another thing:
The day before that I was in dowtown Chicago at the Lincoln Park Zoo. As my family and I were about to leave we saw a pair of medium to large-sized woodpeckers on a tree near the Swan Pond. They were brown headed and had a contrasting black-and-white horizontally lined back. At first I thought that they were immature Yellow Bellied Sapsuckers but they seemed almost identical to the Western US Williamson's Sapsucker female in the Birds of North America National Geographic Field Guide.
Any evidence that can support these sightings will be welcome.
Thanks!
Hi Sid,
Welcome to BirdForum!
I've never seen Reddish Egret, but have seen a Little Blue Heron, which caught the light in such a way as to make the head & neck look reddish-purple - do you think that might be what you saw?
Did you manage to get a good look at the bill colour and shape. Was it slender, or stout? All dark, or with a pink base? That should help get it sorted!
Michael
Certainly seems to be outside the range for Reddish Egret,could it have been Little Blue Heron?