Another Twitch - Snowy Egret

So it seems that public holidays are my days to chase down vagrants in the Western Cape. Following on from my Citrine Wagtail chase earlier this year, I took the opportunity on Youth Day (16/06/15) to look for the very accommodating Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) which had arrived at the Black River close to the city.  Many birders had already been to see it very successfully and it was time to look for it. (More than 600 people have made there way there to date).

We left a very stormy rainy Franschhoek with some relief and headed off towards the city about mid-morning and made our way to the Black River where I had had confirmation that it was still around near the railway bridge.  At first we ended up at the Liesbeeck River side and I had a look around, finding a lovely Yellow-billed Egret which had me all excited for a second, thinking it couldn't be that easy.  Of course, it wasn't!  I chatted to some fishermen who were on the grass and they told me the bird was on the other side.  

When we arrived at the correct river, we found four other birders also looking for the snowy.  Two of them had just arrived from Durban.  They had not found it so we joined the search.  A few minutes later, one of them was quite sure he had just seen it flying off on the far side, the side we had just come from.  I was convinced that it was the Yellow-billed Egret I had just seen that side so while they jumped in their car and raced off to that side, I proceeded to walk up the grass towards the railway bridge which was on the right side of me.  As luck would have it, it started raining quite heavily but we carried on regardless.  At the railway bridge itself, quite a few other birds had gathered, including two lovely Pied Kingfishers, two Water Thick knees, some Reed Cormorants and Egyptian Geese.  We looked around for a few minutes and suddenly, from underneath the bridge, the Snowy Egret came flying in from the other side.  It was kind enough to land right in front of us and start feeding.  What a luck.  A lovely bird, looking so similar to our Little Egret but with more yellow around the eyes and some yellow on the back of the legs and it has bright yellow feet. It proceeded to feed and move around a small area and allowed us to have a good look at it.  Happily I can now say I have seen the only second ever Snowy Egret to be seen in South Africa. The only previous record is of a juvenile bird who arrived here in 2002 at Sandvlei in the Cape Peninsula.

Snowy Egrets are found in South and North America and have been seen in Tristan da Cunha.  How this dear soul found its way here is anyone's guess.

Photo by Karen Powell - used with permission