A snowy egret appeared on the shore in front of our house at 6:30 a.m. on Monday, May 15, 2023. I was able to capture a couple of photos that I uploaded to iNaturalist. I confirmed with biologist Rosemary Curley that it is a rare bird for PEI, and does not breed here. There was only one other PEI observation recorded on iNaturalist on July 2022 near Greenwich, PEI.

My photos won’t win any prizes, but hopefully they will add something to the record of this visitor from the south.

May 15, 2023 6:30 AM

First sighting. Light rain falling. The egret was walking along the short from west to east, seeming to catch many little fish.

May 16, 2023 5:00 PM

I was able to watch the egret for about an hour and get some slightly better photographs. It flew across the river and did some feather cleaning while standing on a fallen tree, then flew off to the west out of my sight.

May 17, 2023 3:30 PM

It spent a few minutes in front of our house, but didn’t see it leave.

May 19, 2023 7:00 AM

Again sitting on the little point of land in front of our house. It flew to our side of the river, so I dashed out to see where it landed. Not finding it right in front of our house, and with a high tide, I walked into the woods and looked over the edge of the high bank. It was on the shore right below me, and flew away to the other side of the river, giving me some top-down shots of it flying away.