ML619573145

Age and sex

Adult, Unknown sex - 1

Behaviors

Flying

Observation details

Uncommon regionally, but overdue as the first record for New York County! Tis the season for wandering herons, I suppose. I first got on the bird as it was flying north over the East River along the NE shore of the island. Once I saw that dark neck and light underside I knew immediately what it was but tempered my celebration so as to keep steady for photos. Once it was past me I took me eyes off it to get the word out, then I was shocked to see it doubling back downriver just a few minutes later. It continued south and out of sight, but only 5 minutes after that it was heading back north again. This time I kept eyes on it until it dropped down to the trees on South Brother Island looking like it was about to land. About 15 minutes later I suddenly saw it flying low above the Bronx Kill, but rather than dropping in to hang out, it started circling over the NE fields and gradually gaining altitude until it took off heading West toward Manhattan, apparently following the typical daily route of commuting GREGs and SNEGs. As it circled low over the fields I got jaw-dropping looks at the bird, a breeding-plumaged adult with dark blue head and neck, light blue base of the bill and long white plumes sticking out the back of its head. Here’s hoping that it liked what it saw at the South Brother rookery and decides to stick around for a while. Very exciting to get a county first, especially at my favored patch, but this was a touch bittersweet since it wasn’t shared with the rest of the Randall’s crew.

Technical information

Model

NIKON D500

Lens

150.0-600.0 mm f/5.0-6.3

ISO

640

Focal length

600 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

1/1250 sec

Dimensions

1950 pixels x 1300 pixels

Original file size

1.19 MB