There is a new show in town! The Snowy Egrets are here. The first group appeared a couple of weeks ago. The population in our marsh is increasing with the migration. They live year round in Mexico and Florida and the Caribbean. They appear to wander around over the USA. I wonder if the slaughter of these birds for their plumage adorning women’s hats in the late 1800s imprinted and scattered the species. They have made a spectacular recovery from that massive hunting pressure. The feathers were sold by the ounce and were more expensive than gold.
Jason and crew are moving some water around at the Bottoms. If you haven’t seen the excavation and hard work that is in progress, you should take a look. Grants have funded improvements that will make water and habitat management much more efficient. The Snowy Egrets love to feed where the water is moving and small fish are swept up and easily accessed. The ringed-billed, juvenile Bonaparte’s gulls, and Franklin gulls are in the mix, along with some Foresters terns. The variety of birds is almost mind-boggling right now.
The Snowy Egrets are by far the star of the show! They are busy and cranky and have little tolerance for any invasion of their space when they are busy feeding. They will invade their neighbor’s territory with impunity if the food source is more plentiful there, so there are lots of conflicts. They are not singing birds, and have an awful squawk when the encounters occur, so the show has great sound effects. They remind me of a porcupine when they fight. They flare out the feathers that made history on women’s hats and use that as a display and warning to their neighbors who usually ignore it — so the fight is on! I sat for about an hour a couple of days ago and almost laughed out loud at their antics. It is amazing to me that only a couple of cars came by, and nobody stopped to observe these special birds. I hope you don’t miss it!
On another issue, I am concerned about our turkeys. My Canadian buddies who bring their traditional archery gear to Kansas to hunt turkeys had a terrible time finding and attracting birds. My game warden buddy is suspicious of a disease or possible over-hunting. He says there are far fewer turkeys this year in our best spots than he can recall. I have been out twice and have seen birds at a distance, but haven’t had a tom or jake in front of me. It seems to me they haven’t broken up yet, and maybe the weather is odd enough to change their patterns. I agree that there seems to be fewer turkeys. Stay tuned...
People are finding morel mushrooms. Wish I had some. They aren’t plentiful in our area.
Go see those egrets! They are a hoot!

Doctor Dan Witt is a retired physician and nature enthusiast.