(Chelsea Update would like to thank Tom Hodgson and the Waterloo Natural History Association for the information and photos in this column.)
Back in February when we were still shoveling and shivering, the great egret was already in the thick of its breeding season … in Florida. Although its white feathers would be a perfect camouflage against the winter snow, our frozen lakes would not yield any fish for its dinner. Therefore, we have to wait until mid-summer to enjoy this magnificent bird.
After the breeding season is over, great egrets begin wandering north, perhaps in search of feeding areas with less competition. It may also be because winter is Florida’s dry season when ponds and wetlands shrink, concentrating food and making it easier to catch. In spring, when the rainy season begins, the ponds and wetlands expand and deepen, making food harder to find and forcing the egrets north in search of better foraging.
They are now arriving in Michigan and should remain through October. They especially like the undeveloped portions of lakes with natural shorelines; and shallow, marshy wetlands where they feed on small fish, crayfish, frogs, tadpoles and an occasional snake.
In past years, egrets have been frequent visitors to Pond Lily Lake on Harvey Road just east of Clear Lake Road, to the marsh at the south end of Crooked Lake, to Mud Lake on Loveland Road just south of Waterloo, the Haehnle Audubon Sanctuary on Seymour Road and Mill Lake on McClure Road. However, they may appear on just about any local lake from time to time.
This member of the heron family is the second largest in North America and is 3-feet tall with a 4-foot wingspan. Only the great blue heron measuring 4-feet tall with a 6-foot wingspan is larger. The beautiful nuptial plumage grown only during the breeding season was nearly this bird’s undoing. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries these nuptial plumages were highly valued to decorate women’s hats. Market hunters nearly brought them to extinction.
The National Audubon Society was created in part to save these birds. The great egret is the organization’s symbol to this day. Market hunting was finally outlawed for good with the passing of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. Since that time, the great egret and its smaller cousin the snowy egret, also valued for its plumage, have been making a comeback. Today, there are even a few confirmed nestings of great egrets in Michigan along the shores of Lake Erie and Saginaw Bay.
However, a majority seen in the state are post season wanderers from the southern states. Although we can now expect to see great egrets each summer, the sighting of a snowy egret in Michigan is still a very rare occurrence.
Although we can admire these stately birds, we will not see them dressed in their breeding finery as their nuptial feathers are shed long before they arrive in Michigan. I’ve included a few images of great and snowy egrets in breeding condition to show what we in Michigan are missing. Of course, we could all become snowbirds and spend some time in Florida this coming winter to see them first hand for ourselves.
