Interlude: Reddish Egrets of Ocracoke

Well, James and I just got back from the Outer Banks, and we've still got a whole lot more to share with you, including some fantastic shorebird pictures, and at least couple more lifers. Among those lifers are these juvenile Reddish Egrets we found while the Ocracoke-Cedar Island Ferry passed by Bird Island (remember, that place where I got my lifer Black Terns?) Well, we didn't find any more Black Terns, but these guys were a nice consolation lifer for James, and more than doubles the number I've ever seen.

Multiple Reddish Egrets this far north is pretty uncommon (I think), and check out how ratty they are! Hopefully they'll molt into their immature plumage soon, it's a shame for such an awesome bird to be stuck in such a mundane outfit. Sorry for the distant shots, by the way - these guys were about a football field's length away!

Anyway, check back tomorrow for continuing coverage of the Birding Bros. on the Outer Banks!

#1 - Reddish Egret; Oak Island, NC

Reddish Egret - Oak Island, NC; 8/16/2009

I wasn't at all interested in birds til a couple of years ago, when I decided to take an Ornithology class my last semester of college. I saw my spark bird there (more on that later) and from there, it was game on! I got a lot of life birds that semester, and yet, this Reddish Egret I found on vacation in southeast North Carolina is more special than any of them. It was the first life bird I ID'd by myself outside of that class, and even then I'd almost written it off as a juvenile Tricolored Heron or a juvenile Little Blue Heron before figuring out its true identity, and I'm glad I did! To this day, it remains one of my favorite life birds, and is overall a pretty uncommon bird here in North Carolina.