South Milwaukee officially became a Bird City last fall, but our place as a haven for rare birds and avid birders has long been well known.
It’s another thing we are becoming famous for.
So that is why I was happy to get a message from Todd Leech, one of our terrific local nature photographers, about “a very unexpected visitor” he came across on Thursday at Grant Park: A snowy egret.
He tells me there have only been four reported in the entire state this year, and the last one reported in Milwaukee County was back in 2003. Before that, there have been just four other reported sightings of this bird in the county dating to 1943.
“He was there the entire day,” Todd wrote. “I’m very proud to be the one who found this little guy, and at every chance I get love promoting our park, and city.”
Consider it done, Todd. Well done.
South Milwaukee Blog 
Snowy egrets were occasional visitors to the shallow pond along the OC Parkway before the athletic field was installed nearby. We saw them multiple times in the 1990s there. This was adjacent to the old Falk Corp dump and waste burial site.
Those were most likely great egrets. They are also white, but about as tall as the great blue herons that we commonly see, while the snowy is smaller. Great egrets are still found in Wisconsin regularly, but there numbers are going down from what I hear.