Tuesday, June 26, 2012

The Rookery

I am linking up with World Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

These are some shots from my visit to the local Black-Crowned Night Heron and Great Egret Rookery. It is cool that the rookery is not far from where I live. So I get a chance to go and visit and see how the herons and egrets are doing. This rookery is in the middle of a Pennsylvania neighborhood. The park has a man-made lake. People are always about.... walking the path around at the lake and fishing. The rookery has been there for years and the birds do not seem to mind all the people being around them. We did see the notice stating it was a (IBA) important bird area.

The Great Egret nest are way high up in the top of some pine trees. I could make out one of the egret chicks. A fuzzy ball of cuteness.

In the same pine trees are the Black Crowned Night Heron nest. Their chicks seemed to be making big progress and growing fast.

. The Night herons chicks were a little more hidden in the pine tree branches. You can make out their darker brown body with white spots and a little of the yellow on its bill.



I was concerned about this juvie Night Heron when I noticed its bill looks crossed. I hope it is able to eat. At least it does look healthy.



This Night heron juvie with the crossed bill was walking around on the ground and then decided he wanted to climb the tree. We were a good distance away. There were about 25 or more Canada Geese on the ground below the tree and between us and the tree with the juvie heron.




The pine trees surround the lake and there must be a night heron or egret nest in every one of the trees. Above is one of the Great Egret nest.

I hope you enjoyed my World Birds this week. To see more wonderful birds check out Springman's World Bird Wednesday  and for more nature post visit Michelle's  Nature Notes

Thanks to Springman and to Michelle our great host each week. Also, thank you for visiting my blog and post. I hope the rest of your week is great and Happy Birding.

48 comments:

  1. glad the rookery exists well with neighborhoods/people. in dallas they had a dreadful invasion of egrets that made horrible messes and toxic waste and air but because they were protected, the people just had to wait it out.

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  2. such a lovely post Eileen, you got some good snaps. I once noted in a photo a 'crossed-bill' on a little scrub wren and it did concern me a lot too. I guess they just learn to manage and get by

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  3. Great photos of all the birds and a very interesting place to visit.

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  4. Hi Eileen,

    Your photos are wonderful.

    I especially liked the Great Egret nest, it is a fantastic shot.

    Wishing you a good week.

    Fiona x

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  5. I'm just a little jealous you have those rookeries so close! Very cool! I love the shot of the heron climbing the tree. Hopefully, the bill won't cause him a problem.

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  6. I'm glad that places like that exist for the birds. They seem to be getting pushed out of so many areas. What a neat spot to have so near.

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  7. oh, the baby egret is so cute!!

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  8. These are delightful - they have such character.

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  9. I would love to visit a rookery! Great photos you got!

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  10. Fantastic shots of the magnificent birds.

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  11. Hi Eileen, You are so fortunate to live so near places like this --in order to see all of these neat birds... I'm envious!!!!

    Great pictures --all of them. I especially love the little fuzzy egret chick.

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  12. Eileen..there is a researcher who would love your info as she did when I had a chickadee like that.. it could not eat and couldn't be captured either..check this out..

    http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/News/DeformedBillsAlaska.htm

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  13. Lovely set of bird photographs. I especially like the one where the juvi night heron is leaning on the tree trunk!

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  14. Wonderful captures of the chicks and the juvie. My favourite is of course, the egret nest and chick.

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  15. What a nice story!! We have several rookeries that are in town. It's shocking to think that they will do well here in the desert but around the water areas, you'll find the Great Blue Herons and some Night Herons nesting. At our Tucson zoo, one was looking down at us. Not very attractive in the beginning. Love these birds and glad you got to see so many of them. I hope Mr. Crooked Beak will be okay....but if he's made it this far, it's looking pretty good:)

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  16. Great pictures you show. Wishing you a good day :)

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  17. how nice to have the rookery so close to home! I love those first two photos particularly

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  18. How wonderful to have the rookery so close to home Eileen and to be able to take all those photos. If I lived so near I think it would be a place I visited a lot.

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  19. Oh Eileen,I'm so jealous of your visit but thankful that you're sharing these wonderful photos with us. I never knew that Night Heron's bills were crossed while still juveniles. Interesting. Enjoy your day. Jo

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  20. Oh sorry, I see the crossed bill is not normal. I hope too that he can eat...

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  21. How cool to have this area so close to home -- a wealth of photo opportunities!

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  22. What cuties! I love the baby egrets! How fortunate you are to live so near such a place!

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  23. Beautiful pictures of the rookery.

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  24. The Rookery is coooool.

    And is my favourite.

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  25. Fantastic photos! Looks like an awesome place to visit.

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  26. i really like those spikey egrets!!

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  27. You captured some great shots there. How nice for you that you get so see all that in person!

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  28. I had the chance to photograph a rookery like this a couple of years ago. What a thrill it would be to see these birds day in day out!
    Great pictures and fantastic birds!

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  29. What a lovely visit you had and I have thoroughly enjoyed visiting it with you :-) You got some great photos which are never easy with trees and leaf cover, I particularly like the first photo!

    I also very much enjoyed the previous post with the deer and the Black Bears, how amazing to see those!

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  30. the white bird is so funny, lovely! great shoots

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  31. I love visiting a rookery! When we lived in Oregon, there was a GB Heron one nearby and it was so fun to keep track of the progress. The other best ones we ever saw were in Louisiana in the Bayou country, but that was just a one-time thing. It's wonderful that you have this active one so close to you. Your pix are great!

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  32. Excellent rookery story and fantastic pictures Eileen! Love them all and I do not see that kind of bird very often over here ;-)

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  33. Great pictures of the rookery, those fuzzy white babies are adorable. I've never seen a heron climb a tree like that, hope the bird with the twisted beak manages to survive.

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  34. I'm amazed that the birds don't appear to care that you are there taking their photos!

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  35. I enjoyed looking at each of your heron / egret pictures. Each one is wonderful. It is great that you can get in so close with your camera and cropping!

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  36. The heron climbing the tree is a special picture. All the others are simply wonderful!:)

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  37. How wonderful to live so close. Great shots!

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  38. Your "header" is fantastic!
    All the photos are great!!!

    I heard about the tornadoes (in the news) and about the huge fire in Colorado. Hope you are Okay!
    Hugs
    BShell

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  39. So awesome! Love the fuzzy Great Egret in the tree... Weird about that young Night Heron with the crossed bill. Lots of great photos here!

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  40. Great photos and very interesting documentation, Eileen!

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  41. Beautiful bird photos as always, Eileen. Nice post.

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  42. At our local nature preserve, we also have lots of great egrets and night herons. They must get along well in your neck of the woods too. Although, I have never seen a juvie night heron until now.

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  43. Since this is World Bird Wednesday, I must muse over these beauties and then go back to the top and view your header once again. Eileen, that is magnificent, such a marvelous image, one that evokes such peace and I absolutely love it!

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  44. Great post Eileen! It must be nice having a rookery so close that you can visit any time. That fuzzy Great Egret is magical and the Black-crowned Night-Heron photo is super. My favorites are of the juvie Night-Heron. I wish him or her the best of,luck with that bill!

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  45. (it sure doesn't take long to get behind...i didn't realize how far back i needed to go to get caught up...)

    OH how i LOVE the baby egret picture...what a ball of fluff!
    the young night herons are CUTE too, with their spiked hair-do...uh, feather-do!

    as always, terrific pictures!

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