Sightings June 1 wader roost on Monticello

This evening I followed up on a tip I received last winter, that large waders were roosting in the evenings in the waste water treatment plant on Monticello, between Jefferson Hwy and River Rd right on the Orleans-Jefferson Parish line.

There were about 100 large waders roosting in a grove of willows there this evening as night approached.  About 80% were White Ibis, the rest split between Snowy and Great Egrets.  This is more birds than I expected in early summer, when I would expect them to spend the nights in their nesting colonies outside the city.

There was also a blackbird roost, overwhelmingly Common Grackles, in the same facility a bit closer to Jefferson Hwy, in another patch of willows.  I saw 40 enter, but there were many more already present and hard to count.  Eight Chimney Swifts were hawking bugs over the blackbird roost, twittering.  Small flocks of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks were flying here and there, some settling in the treatment plant.

The waders are adjacent to 1000 Monticello, visible from up on the levee there.   I parked on a side street, Byron, a little closer to River Rd.

Some other info on roosts and rookeries in the city is on page 8 in Birding Made Easy.