I’ll be presenting a free public program on wading birds and their kin for the Clinchfield Senior Adult Center in Erwin at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 14.

My main focus will fall on a family of birds known as waders, which include herons, egrets, ibises, spoonbills and more. I will also discuss shorebirds, such as plovers, godwits, sandpipers and more, to a lesser degree. This will be a fully illustrated slide show featuring some of my own photography.

Egrets and herons are members of a family of birds known as Ardeidae. Our region is home to the great blue heron all 12 months of the year. This stately, long-legged bird can stand 4.5 feet tall but weighs no more than six pounds. The black-crowned night heron is a localized year-round resident in the region, making it much more difficult to locate than its larger relative.

Most other waders are summer residents or unexpected visitors in the region.

For example, the great egret is a graceful bird with white plumage, long legs and a sharp, yellow bill. It is smaller than the great blue heron. The great egret stands 3.3 feet tall and has a wingspan of 52 to 67 inches. On average, however, they weigh only about 2.2 pounds.

These egrets nest in large colonies. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the colonial nesting habits of these birds made them particularly vulnerable to humans who slaughtered the birds in the millions to harvest their feathers for use in the fashion industry. The great egret and other wading birds were almost decimated in order to decorate fashionable hats for women.

The National Audubon Society was founded in 1905, largely as an effort to combat the unregulated slaughter of birds like great egrets, snowy egrets and roseate spoonbills. Now, more than a century later, the great egret still serves as the official logo for the National Audubon Society.

The great egret has rebounded from those dark years. In fact, this bird now ranges as far north as southern Canada in appropriate wetland habitats. During spring and fall migration, great egrets also pass through northeast Tennessee. Look for them along rivers, lakes and on small farm ponds.

Wading birds also include a couple of oddballs, including wood stork, roseate spoonbill, limpkin and American bittern.

When I first set out on my birding adventure I wanted to see as many birds as possible. I was also motivated to check off at least one family of birds.

With North America’s wading birds, I was successful, although it took me 20 years to finally see all of this family of birds. I saw my last member of North America’s waders on June 11, 2016. While visiting Huntington Beach State Park in South Carolina, I finally observed a least bittern.

I wasn’t actively looking to add any life birds to my list during that South Carolina trip, so the least bittern also represented a very pleasant surprise.

The least bittern has been found by other birders in wetlands in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee, but I’ve never been in the right place at the right time to find this bird closer to home. I have seen a few American bitterns, which are a larger relative of this diminutive member of the heron clan.

I didn’t have the same degree of difficulty adding an American bittern to my list. Years ago, while birding with Reece Jamerson, an American bittern emerged from vegetation at the edge of a ditch in a flooded pasture and proceeded to put on quite the show. To my eternal regret, that sighting predated my habit of always carrying a camera with me while birding.

I learned my lesson and began faithfully carrying a camera with me after that encounter. I hope some readers will come out to the free program on Oct. 14 and enjoy some of the photographs I have taken during 30 years of birding. I will also be talking about the different wading birds it’s possible to see in the region. This family of birds has some beautiful, graceful birds that tend to make observers take notice whether they’re seeing them in person or in a photograph.

The Clinchfield Senior Adult Center is located at 220 Union St., Erwin. For more information, email me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.com.