FOY Black-crowned Night-Heron, 07/28/17

I met Linda Scrima out at the Liberty Loop viewing platform just after 7:00 this evening. My goal was to try to finally get my first BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON of the year in Orange County. Early on, Linda located some small shorebirds way in the back of the pool in front of the view platform. I got on them with my scope and we had 4 Least Sandpipers, and my first PECTORAL SANDPIPER of the fall migration. A little later, we had nearly twenty Great Egrets pick up from the southernmost part of the loop and relocated into some nearby trees, presumably to roost. And then, not too long after that, we had a single distant BCNH flying high on the east side of the loop, followed by a second one that flew from the middle of the marsh, straight towards the viewing platform and eventually settled in behind some vegetation a little ways out in the pool in front of the platform. I didn’t even try to take photos with my camera, but I was able to get a few decent looking digiscoped shots of the bird. I typically see this bird earlier in the year (I had my first in the month of June, three of the last four years). The BCNHs were my 199th bird in Orange County so far this year.