Feeling a Little Blue

Actually the last day or so I have not been up to snuff.  Must have been that camping experience at Pelee on the weekend!  Lots 'o fun though, especially around the campfire.  BTW, can someone offer a plausible explanation for that "explosion" sound (in threes) we always hear at Point Pelee coming from the direction of Pelee Island?  Nobody has come to a concrete conclusion!  That was one of the discussions around the campfire Saturday eve and apparently they discuss it every year!  This year's (silly) explanation was that a Canadian Naval submarine keeps hitting that concrete light structure out in Pelee Passage (!).

Anyway, Sunday's sighting of that heron at Lighthouse Cove was a bit of a learning experience.  I had never seen a Snowy Egret in that particular plumage, but it does exist. It looks remarkably like a Little Blue Heron from a distance and it sure had me fooled for a bit.  The bill was a very similar colour to that of a Little Blue.  It even had a darkish, but not solid tip.  Note distinctive yellow lores.  Oh, maybe it is a hybrid.....!

I have only seen one juv Little Blue Heron in Ontario and that is one I personally discovered just outside Rondeau Park in August 2000.  It stayed quite a while (August 26-September 14) for many to view.  I was just leaving the park after a morning of birding and noticed a white heron in Bate's Marsh.  Better check that out! Yep.

This is a photo of the bird (by Alfred H. Rider):

Two or three Little Blues show up in Ontario each year it seems.  Two were seen this past spring:  One at Wheatley 6 May (Lance and Faye Allin) and one at Erie View, Norfolk 27 May (Scott D. McIntosh, Susan M. McIntosh, Jason S. McIntosh).
Maybe another one will show up soon!