GBHE Watch 2003

Hard to believe another nesting year has begun. I had high hopes of being at the Rookery in January to watch the start of a new nesting season. But my Dad had a heart attack and I was back east from Dec to Feb 1st of this new year. On Feb 2nd, I went to check up on the Rookery and when I got there I was thrilled to see nesting activity. I was told, however, that there was a disturbance under the site due to a water main breaking. I do think this was the cause of the rookery having a smaller number of nesting pairs this year.

After being in NY for six weeks I just had to get back over to check on the rookery. When I arrived I was thrilled to see two nests occupied. It looks like Nest 1 and Nest 2 will produce young again this year. A third pair looks interested in Nest 4...I will have to wait and see.

February 7, 2003

Nest 1 and 2 are now incubating and there is a yearling bird standing in Nest 6 (over Nest 1). This young heron seems to be adding to the nest and then just standing around. The adult in Nest 1 has had a fight with this young one.   The pair on Nest 4 are gone? Wonder why. I notice there has been construction under the rookery. People passing by have been telling me while I was gone that Vasona once again has major activity under the nest site. I will give them a call.......

February 11, 2003

All is progressing well at the rookery. It will be interesting to see how they do with the rain coming tomorrow.

February 14, 2003

What a great Valentine's Day present to find three nests filled with herons. Nests 1 and 2 are incubating. Nest 4 is building. A Red-shouldered Hawk did a flyover and scared the GBHEs out and off of Nests 1 and 4, but nest 2 stood it's ground or should I say nest.....

One adult Great Blue Heron was hunting in the large field.

February 20, 2003

Did a quick check and all is well. Nest 1 and Nest 2 are still incubating and Nest 4 the herons come and go. They are still adding twigs



Nest 2 incubating.......Notice the blue lores......
February 25, 2003

Watched Nest 2 incubate its eggs, lots of egg turning and then back down in the nest. Nest 1 did some preening and then egg turning and sits low in the nest. The yearling is back in Nest 6 just standing there.

I was taking notes on the yearling and this bird must be from last year's brood. It still has dark gray feathers on its head, with a dot of white on the top crown. Its feathers are fringed with rust and it has no shoulder marks yet. The feathers on the top of its legs are also a light gray and have not yet gotten the beautiful cinnamon or rust color as the adults. Also, its bill is still dark gray on top and yellow on the bottom. Under tail feathers are white with rust.

February 27, 2003

Today I decided to try out my digital camera and attach it to my scope so that I can add the pictures after I post. Nest 1 is still incubating, turning eggs and once in a while standing and preening. Nest 2, had a changing of the guard at around 12:15 and the replacement heron stretched, fixed the nest and then sat down to incubate.

Claudia and Gordon Peterson were telling me how they watched the offering of twigs from male to female. They gave me photos to keep that they took of that display. I was just thrilled to see pictures of this, but sure do wish I would have seen this wonderful display for myself. The Peterson's also witnessed the mating of the herons in nest one after the female accepted the twig from the male. Gordon filmed it and was kind enough to give me the film.

I took a neat picture of one of the GBHEs catching a vole in the field and then eating it.

Today I checked the back side of the rookery and found one nest with an adult standing on it. This nest can not be seen from the Vasona side. I will have to go up and around to check on this nest.

Great Blue Heron with a vole. In the field across from the boat dock.

March 7, 2003 65 degrees Sunny ...light breeze

Today I monitored the nest for four hours. Nest 1 is incubating with no changing of herons during the four hours. The heron did fix the nest, preen and stretch but mostly sat down deep in the nest. I am hoping that this nest will produce five young as in the past two years.

Nest 2 was incubating, fixing the nest and had one change of herons during the four hours. I have a feeling it won't be long before babies are in this nest....I noticed lots of black fluffy feathers were the brood patch would be. Didn't notice that from last year.

Nest 4 must be in the egg laying stage. It watches were it stands in the nest, incubates and then stands for long periods of time. The pair are together at the nest most of the time.

The yearling was still standing in nest 6 and continues to just stand around. It does preen and not much more. This young one left the nest a few times for about 20 minutes at a time and then came back.

No other herons were seen in the area today.

Claudia Peterson was photographing the herons today and told me that two herons had a fight. They would fly up in the air and bang their chests into one another. They did this twice.

March 9, 2003

Just a quick peek of the nests tells me all is well. Nest 4 is now incubating. Nest 1 and 2 shouldn't be much longer for babies....Yippee.....

March 11, 2003

I checked the back of the rookery and the single adult is now sitting the nest. I will check on this again next week.

March 13, 2003 Storm approaching....very windy ...30 mph with winds approaching from the south

The rookery is swaying back and forth. I can't believe Nest 2 is still up there. I can see I won't be sleeping tonight with the approaching storm coming in. The are predicting strong winds and heavy rain. Heavy rain at the time of egg hatching is quite dangerous to the eggs (chicks) survival. Nest 4 still has both herons at the nest.

The yearling is not at the rookery. On my way out I found an adult heron hunting in the field and the yearling about 20 feet from the adult. When the adult flew the young one followed.

March 15, 2003 Sunny 65 degrees

What a relief to see that all was well at the rookery. Nest 2 might just have little ones up there. Today I found a piece of a blue shell. The heron is definitely watching were it was stepping today. Nest 1 was preening and fixing the nest and sat most of the hour I was watching. Nest 4 did some stretching and preening. Looked to turn the eggs and sit back down. No changing of any herons from the nest today.

It was good to see a lot of people from last year come by and chat. All are interested in seeing what happens this years.

March 19, 2003

Did a quick drop by and check at the Rookery. Nest 1, 2 and 4 are still incubating. I noticed that in Nest 2 and Nest 4 there was a change in herons on the nest, but not in Nest 1. The juvenile came by....

Need to post a correction: I have been call the "yearling" by the wrong name..... it is a Juvenile, born this past breeding season and in it's winter plumage...

Okay, the Juvenile came by and caused a racket as it wanted to land into the nests with incubating adults. It was chased off and stood as close as it could to Nest 4 without being yelled at!

March 24, 2003 BABIES ARE BORN!

Well, slap me silly! You can't image how excited I was to hear babies crying when I got out of my car. The bigger surprise was that they babies were born to Nest 1....how about that. I still think Nest 2 has a little one up there from her actions, but no noise yet. I did watch the parent throw out the egg shell from the nest. YES...I retrieved it and was happy to see it was still wet inside which should mean one baby born today! I also found another shell that I picked up that was dry inside. The pictures will follow this post. I watched whom I thought was the male GBHE come in and feed the babies and then all the noise stopped and the Mom sat back down! How exciting.....Can't wait till tomorrow to see if any more little one have arrived......

Just a thought here. After I put this picture up I realized that the egg looked huge. Please remember the size of this egg is a bit larger than a chicken's egg.....

March 25, 2003

I just had to run back to check on the herons this morning. I could hear the little ones crying as I set up my scope. I watched the adult in nest one eating something from the bottom of the nest and then I realized it was large fish.....it ate three huge fish....the heron in nest one was shielding its babies as the sun started to warm things up. It was also oscillating for awhile.

In nest 2 the heron fixed up the nest and then just disappeared. I don't know if it left (didn't see anything fly) or just sat back down. I would have thought this nest would have had her babies first...She may, and I just can't tell.

Nest 4 had a heron standing so I was wondering what was up in this nest since egg laying was only about two weeks ago now...

There was a crow standing on top of the branches which made the herons snap to attention. The crow looked as if it were waiting for the right moment to take steal something from the nest. The behavior of both species was amazing to watch.

Here is a picture of the adult in nest 1 shielding her little ones......

April 8, 2003

Back from my trip to bird Texas I went to monitor the GBHEs nests this morning. What a lovely day. Sky is blue and the cries of heron babies filled the air.

Today in nest 1 a count of 4 little ones were seen (just for a brief moment) then only two showed themselves for the four hours I was there.

The heron in front (right side) of the other three herons stood up most of the morning crying for food and attention. The parent preened itself and slept while the little one begged for attention.

Nest 2 was a surprise to me today. When arriving early this morning the nest was empty and my heart sank wondering where the parents and babies were. Then an adult flew in and only one baby popped its head up. It appeared to be very young as it looked weak. I can't believe the adult left this young chick all by itself, not something an adult heron usually does..... I will check on this nest tomorrow to see how it is coming along.

Nest 4 had three noisy little ones (not that little anymore). They were standing on the rim of the nest and you could see their downy under parts. The parent stood in the back of the nest watching them. Another parent flew in and brought food to them and they settled down for a bit. Nest 4 with two little ones.

The biggest surprise today was what I shall call NEST 7. A brand new nest for the rookery (actually it was there last year but I couldn't see it). It has three babies in it. It sits back below nest 2. I tried taking pictures but there is to many leaves and branches in the way for my digital to get any good shots. This nest had the most visits for feedings. The little ones were a bit on the noisy side even after being fed! There was a Red-tailed Hawk flying over the rookery today and all the adult herons where well aware of it. It's great to finally have babies back in the nests. Now the fun begins with watching them grow........

Nest 2 has an only child this year and the adult is still present with it. Both the parent and the nestling are preening. This nestling has lots of fluffy feathers under his tail and on his under belly. The nestling watches every move that the adult makes. The tells me that the nestling is learning what to do when it becomes a parent. The little one watched the parent fly off and walked out to the far end of the nest and flapped its wings. It definitely has all its flight feathers.

Nest 4 has 3 nestlings. Very noisy ones at that. This group has lots of sibling rivalry going on. They all can rim walk around the nest and their wings do have all their flight feathers also. They do flap them a lot...more than the other herons in the rookery. Last year this nest was the first to fledge.

There is an adult in Nest 5 (above nest 1) fixing the nest, putting twigs in then just preening itself. Could we have another GBHE come to nest? This is definitely a breeding adult.

Back at Nest 1 the adult has come back with a whole fish and deposited it into the nest. You can just imagine the noise and the fighting for that one fish. I noticed that all the nestlings in nest 1 also have all their flight feathers.

Overview of the 4 hours: All nestlings (11) look great, preening, wing flapping, rim walking and of course fighting with each other. All seem to have their flight feathers. All settled down after being fed. At around 12 noon an adult Osprey flew over the rookery. The Red-shouldered Hawks have a nest in the next set of Euc trees and are constantly flying over the rookery.

Here are some pictures of various nestlings....I am going to do a picture gallery here of the photos I took on May 12....Click on a picture for a larger view.

Some people have asked how to tell the growing nestlings form the adult in the nest. Here is a picture of nest 2. Look at the Heron with the white crown stripe...this is the adult. The nestling below the adult shows an all gray crown.

A shot drop in visit shows the herons all doing well. Lots of wing flapping and noise.

Wow, what a great surprise....I check the rookery and saw the most of the herons were now branch walking all over the rookery. It was hard to tell which nestling belonged to which nest. One of the nestlings from nest 1 did a short flight to another part of the tree. Looks like they are getting ready to make their first flights.

Okay, things are moving fast now....I would say most of the nestlings are moving about, lots of wing flapping, and walking around the rookery. Also the adults are not coming to the rookery to feed them as often.

I am making quick stops in the evening to check the rookery as I can see that any day now the herons will be found down in the creek foraging for food on their own and going back to the nest for security at night. Time will tell.

Well, the time has arrived.....Nest 1 now has one nestling in the nest. 1 in the tree and the other 2 have left the nest. Nest 2, our only child is still up there. Nest 4 has 1 in the nest, 2 gone. In nest 7 I can only see 1 in the nest. Further checking of the creek show 2 nestlings foraging for good. This is the greatest time to watch them as they learn to hunt for food. One kept coming up with a short twig and lots of mud.....by 7:30 PM the herons were back in the rookery.

Tonight I find that the rookery had the following herons in the nests. Nest 1 had 2.....Nest 2 had NONE.....Nest 4 had 1 and Nest 7 had 2. Nest 7 is the only nest that had an adult come by and drop off food.

We have now entered the coming and going stage of nesting at the rookery. The nestlings (soon to be full fledged fledglings) will leave the nest and down to hunt for themselves with going back to their nests for security for the next 7 to 10 days. The parents will occasionally bring food, but once the nestlings leave the nest for good they are on their own for finding food.

My notes tell me that since the babies were born on and around March 24, ten weeks would put the rookery at June 1 for the departure of the herons. That would make some of the herons ten weeks old. Time does fly by quickly. After watching the rookery I can see the time table for leaving the rookery is right on schedule. The heron chicks born on or before the March 24 date are now down on the ground with the younger and or later hatched chicks still needing that extra week or so.

As I checked on the Rookery today....I noticed that most of the herons were well on their way to leaving the Rookery for good.

Nest 1 and Nest 7 had 1 GBHE nestling still present at the nest. Walking around the nest and then branch walking. The GBHE nestling in Net 1 flew down to the creek and after getting it's feet wet it flew back up to the nest. It was quite funny to watch. Nest 2 and 4 were empty.

Saddened by the Rookery having no herons present I was suddenly happy to see a brand new couple in nest 2. Both in adult breeding plumage and both preening themselves and each other....I will check to see if anything comes of this pair....

Hate checking the Rookery on a Saturday, just to many people at Vasona, but I needed to due my four hour study... It didn't take long today as the Rookery is completely empty now.... Time to call the Great Blue Heron season of 2003 closed.....

Check back in December as I plan to start early checking the Rookery for early arrivals...I will start a new GBHE Watch 2004......