Little Blue Heron at Great Swamp NWR

Little Blue Heron, Great Swamp NWR, NJ, Apr. 30, 2017 (photo by Jonathan Klizas)

(Click on the photo for a larger image).

Little Blue Herons are a mostly annual visitor to Morris County but often with only one or two reports. 2014 was the once-in-a-life exception as Little Blue Heron juveniles invaded the Melanie Lane Wetlands and the Lincoln Park Gravel Pits (see that post here).

An adult Little Blue Heron was found along Pleasant Plains Road, Great Swamp NWR on April 29 by Simon Lane. It continues through today, Sunday, April 30. Chris Thomas created a map on his eBird checklist with the exact location of the Little Blue Heron. The link for that map is here.

The Little Blue Heron was frequenting the field on the east side of Pleasant Plains Road opposite the two ponds on the west side of Pleasant Plains Road before reaching the 90° turn. It was hunting in a wet, marshy depression and could easily be hidden from view. On a few occasions, it flew to trees neighboring this field on both the north and south sides to roost momentarily before returning to the hunting area.

Other Birds

A pair of Snowy Egrets showed up April 29 at a private superfund site in Somerset County (Jeff Ellerbusch).

Snowy Egrets, Somerset Co., NJ, Apr. 29, 2017 (photo by Jeff Ellerbusch)

Elsewhere, bird migration is humming along. It could be a distorted perception, but it seems to this writer that species are arriving at slightly earlier than usual dates in 2017. It could also be the eBird phenomenon where everyone knows where everything is almost instantaneously that is causing this perception.

BirdCast.info has a northeast migration forecast through May 5, here.

Follow mocosocoBirds on Facebook. The link is here. It is quicker to publish information and photos sooner via that medium than through a blog. mocosocoBirds sees an increased usage of that medium in the near future.

View local eBird checklists in the mocosocoBirds region via eBird’s Region Explorer. Use the following links:

• Morris County
• Somerset County

The eBird Hotspot Primer is here and can also be accessed via the Hotspot menu item on the mocosocoBirds.com website.

The mocosocoBirds Facebook page is located here and also posts timely information not found on the mocosocoBirds web site.

@mocosocoBirds at Twitter is another communications stream. Instant field reports and links of interest are tweeted throughout the day. The latest tweets appear on the sidebar of this page. One can follow mocosocoBirds at Twitter or link to @mocosocoBirds.

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