Winter Oddity #1: Great Egret in Langley

This gallery contains 3 photos. I finally met this elegant wader after narrowly missing the opportunity by a day almost 3 years ago at the Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Ladner. On the tip of another eagle-eyed birder, my subject showed up after just a few hours of our waiting for it on a mild winter afternoon.

Someone really knows how to make an entrance. December 31, 2018 (f/7.1, 1/400, 500mm, ISO 200)

Finding this Great Egret in the winter grass and reeds fronting a Langley farm on the last day of 2018, was a great way to wrap up the year. This piscivore was neither disturbed by the trio of photographers capturing its every move, nor by the traffic roaring down the 2-lane road, and in fact, ventured to with 15 feet of me to feed (even more nonchalant than the Blue Herons that we often see in the Pacific Northwest).

Closeup of head in non-breeding regalia. December 31, 2018 (f/7.1, 1/320, 340mm, ISO 100)

Whatever caused this migratory heron to spend its decidedly non-tropical vacation here instead of at its regular winter stomping grounds in Miami, Mexico, and Guatemala is a mystery — but one that I am grateful for. It was a treat to see that sculpted white presence doing its thing.


Looking regal in the reeds, even without those aigrettes. December 31, 2018 (f/7.1, 1/400, 340mm, ISO 100)

Just when you think that the GREG couldn’t be even more spectacular, during the breeding season, they kick things up a notch, developing a patch of bright green on their faces and a breathtaking bouquet of long feathery plumes known as aigrettes grows from their backs. Pure poetry in motion.

To learn more about the GREG, please visit its Cornell Lab of Ornithology allaboutbirds.org profile here.

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