Tricolored Heron, Rhode Island, April 2013

I chased after Tricolored Heron in Rhode Island on two different occasions in 2012 but came up empty both times.  So when a Tricolored was reported from the marshes of Galilee in April 2013 I sure wanted to go after this one.  The bird was first seen on Friday afternoon but the news didn’t get out till that night.  The next question is would it remain into the weekend or did I miss my chance?  One early morning Saturday post was negative, but a positive sighting came across in mid morning.  So there was hope. 

I finally was able to break away at 3 PM I embarked on my 2-hour drive to the RI coast with cautious optimism.  But my hopes were significantly diminished at about 4 PM when I got a report of a negative post from someone at 3 PM.  Should I turn around and cut my losses, or continue on?  I decided that the bird might still be around and just challenging to locate, so I decided to continue to the RI coast.  And even if it wasn’t being very cooperative I would still have 2 hours of sunlight to wait for it to appear.  And then things changed again at 4:30 – I received another report that the bird was seen again at 4.  I sure was glad I didn’t turn around based on the earlier report. 

At 5 I finally arrived at the eastern edge of the marshes along Galilee Escape Road where all the sightings of the bird had occurred.  But there were no waders there at all.  Another birder arrived a couple minutes later and told me he had been in the area most of the day and hadn’t found the bird.  Suddenly it wasn’t looking so good after all.  Now my thoughts turned to trying to figure out where the bird could be going when it’s not there in the marsh.  I then scanned the western part of the marsh in the distance and found a number of Great Egrets in that area, so maybe the Tricolored was over that end too.  After a short drive I was over at the western edge of the marsh and found a couple Great Egrets near the road.  Before I could pick up the binocs I noticed a smaller dark wader in one of the pools.  It was the Tricolored Heron!  As you can see in my phone-scoped picture below, this bird could blend into the background so it’s not surprising that it wasn’t easy to find.  Plus I bet many birders were concentrating their searches in the other part of the marsh where all the other sightings had been.

Finally after 3 attempts I could add Tricolored Heron to my RI list –third time was the charm!  That is #305 for me in RI.  And in my statebird map below, I now have seen Tricolored in every state touching the Atlantic and the Gulf except for NY – plus I’ve seen it inland in Arkansas.