One of my faithful readers, Wyatt, commented on the blog today about one of the pictures where I stated it was a Great Egret in the picture. In Wyatt’s comment he thought that the bird in question was a Little Blue Heron. What the…
When I start playing the afternoon back in my head I start to get mad at myself for not paying closer attention to the finer details of field markings. As I played the scene through my head I remember the smaller size, the greenish-yellow legs, and the darker tip on the bill. So when I read the comment that Wyatt wrote I immediately grabbed my Peterson and Stokes field guides.
I’ve seen adult Little Blue Herons before, when their that deep blue color, not white. So scratch this up as a lesson learned the hard way.
Even though we’ve never meet in person, I want to thank Wyatt for keeping me honest. I’ve been wrong in the past, and I’m sure I’ll be wrong in the future when it comes to identifying birds. It’s the learning from our mistakes that will make us better birders in the future.
A Birder's Notebook 