My photograph of a Great Egret landing in a marsh has won First Place in the Birds category of the 2008 Maryland Natural Resource Magazine Photo Contest. Close to 1500 photographs were submitted by over 300 photographers. This is the second consecutive year that one of my photographs has been selected.

Sponsored by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, this picture will be published in the winter issue of the Maryland Natural Resource Magazine as well as the 2009 Maryland Natural Resource Calendar.

See a larger view of this picture (#1022) by clicking on the image. Click here to see the DNR Photo Contest press release.

		A very rare sighting of the Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) has been confirmed at the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Smyrna, Delaware on June 7, 2008. The Little Egret is primarily a European bird, with rare sightings over the years from Virginia to Nova Scotia. It is easy to mistake the Little Egret for the more common Snowy Egret, but with careful observation one can correctly distinguish between the two different species. The Little Egret has gray lores (bare skin between the bill and eyes) and the iris is pale. Adults have two well-defined nape plumes which are visible during the breeding season. While the back plumes are nearly straight on the Little Egret, the Snowy Egret has lacy plumes. As with many egrets, their plumes were used to decorate hats, and this millinery trade almost wiped out the Little Egret population in Europe during the 19th and early 20th centuries. These two photographs were taken on Saturday, June 7th at 3:25 PM at the northern end of the Shearness Pool area of the refuge. The second photograph shows the Little Egret foraging near a Snowy Egret. The differences in the eye lores and plumage are obvious. All these photographs were taken using a Nikon D300 equipped with a Nikkor 500mm prime lens fitted with a 1.7 teleconverter. You may see the full size photographs from my image gallery by clicking on any of the images. Click on the News menu item to see the write-up by Phil Davis, Secretary of the MD/DC Records Committee.