After spending three hours yesterday on Washburn Lane I can honestly say
that I have never spent so much time studying Great Egrets. There were a
couple that seemed smaller, but when they got close enough to another Great
Egret the size difference didn't seem so great. I can debunk the myth that
a dusky tipped bill indicates an Intermediate Egret. At least three of the
egrets had varying amounts of dark on the tip of the bill. Several of the
birds showed "rounded" as opposed to flat crowns, also mentioned as a field
mark for Intermediates. Finally, at least two (of the dozen) Great Egrets
had gape lines that appeared to stop just below the eye. The caveat here is
that the birds were not super close and the views were through a scope.
Perhaps there were feathers covering it that we would have seen if they were
closer. In sum, we did not see the significantly smaller bird that Sally
photographed, but we did see a lot of variation in the Great Egrets that
were present.
Tom Crabtree, Bend
