Greg Moyers saw and photographed an adult Yellow-crowned Night Heron at Lake
Shenandoah near Massanetta Springs this morning. Clair Mellinger's book on
the Birds of Rockingham County (1998) indicates there have been no records of
this species in the county since 1968; I am not aware of any sightings here
since 1998.
Today was my 78th birthday. I was hardly expecting a bird this good as a
birthday gift (I had sought it fruitlessly on several occasions in Tidewater
VA
and NC this year). I ran into Greg at the Wellness Center this morning and
he told me he had just seen it. After yoga class I drove over to Lake
Shenandoah and looked for the bird, but boaters were near a number of
locations
where it would likely have been, and it was quite hot and muggy. The bird
was
nowhere to be seen. I suspected it was enjoying the shade up in a tree
somewhere along the lake shore but I could not find it with my scope.
After choir practice ended this evening, even though a shower was under way,
I figured that a night heron should be out fishing at dusk, so I stopped by
the lake again. Through the windshield wipers I found it almost at once, in
the same place Greg had told me he had seen it, across the lake from the
dock, standing on a partially submerged tree branch along the shore. It was
not
necessary to put up my scope in the rain; binoculars yielded the facial
pattern quite well.
It was like a maraschino cherry on top of the whipped cream on a piece of
chocolate birthday cake for me--a great way to end a birthday.
John Irvine
Harrisonburg
