WHISPERING HILLS: EARLY MORNING SCENES OF A HERON FAMILY

The angle of the morning light shadows my viewing side of the shorebirds feeding along the mudflats. Cattails and giant reed (a grass that grows to 12-feet tall) line the V-shaped body of water on this privately-owned wetland.

Three lesser yellowlegs wait until I sit down before they fly. As their name suggests, they have long yellow legs. A killdeer screams rapid "kil-deeahs" as it lands.

A semiplanted plover ignores me and continues feeding in the narrow band of mush at the water's edge. It runs a few steps and then either snatches food from the mud or repeatedly "pecks" to reach it. The plover has a single brown necklace, a white collar and a solid brown back. Killdeer have two necklaces.

Three sizes of shorebirds all feed with a sewing-machine motion and all have brown streaked breasts. The mid-sized ones are pectoral sandpipers, and the smaller are probably least sandpipers. With the angle of the sun I can't tell if they have yellow legs. The two larger ones are short-billed dowitchers. They're almost two inches larger than the pectorals and have proportionately longer bills.

Two snowy egrets stand together near the point. The two white birds resemble great egrets, only smaller. These are immatures which have black bills, yellow feet and legs that are black down the front and yellow down the back.

I walk to the wooded end of the other cove. White birds wade in the water; one great blue heron flies. I face away from them as I stalk closer, knowing eye contact might send them flying.

Cattails and rushes partially block my view of the cove. Duckweed greens the edges. Seven great egrets (see three in my illustration) feed as they slowly wade. They have a yellow bill, blackish legs and are near the size of great blue herons.

Four egrets suddenly act agitated and surround a dark shape. It ends up being two snapping turtles, which don't part on friendly terms. They swim off, and the egrets go on about their business.

Six more great egrets preen from perches just above the water. A smaller white heron feeds alone. The immature little blue heron has a dark-tipped gray bill and dull yellow legs; the adults are slate blue with a purplish head and neck.

Great blue herons, great egrets and black-crowned night herons nest together in rookeries scattered across Illinois, surrounding states and southward. Snowy egrets and little blue herons breed in the south. Most of the egrets and herons we see in the fall have dispersed northward after breeding season.

An adult black-crowned night heron (right in illustration) sits in a hunched position on a log. It has a black back and gray wings where the immature feeding nearby is tan and brown. Both have red eyes.

A muskrat swims between the egrets, and several wood ducks and mallards feed in groups. Male dragonflies defend territories and patrol the shore, while the females "tap" the surface to lay eggs.

I don't relocate the two snowy egrets; apparently they don't associate with the rest of the heron clan. I sneak back out without disturbing the birds.

Kathy Phelps is a freelance nature writer and illustrator who resides in Harrisburg, Ill.