Saturday, June 21, 2014

Saturday's Critters #29

Saturday's Critters #29

Hello and happy weekend!  It's that time to share your critters. I hope to see you join in with the Saturday Critter Party.

 According to the Baltimore Bird Club there has been some upsetting news about the Yellow-Crowned Night Heron rookery in Baltimore. Heron eggs and 13 chicks are missing and have been lost, there is no way of telling what happened. A storm or a predator or humans, very sad...My last visit was on May 31, when hubby and I made a quick visit to see some of the chicks and herons.. Here are some of my shots from our last visit..


 On May 31, we saw 5 eggs in this one Yellow-crowned Night Heron's nest.


A good momma.


 Momma with chick below..


Possible male adult Yellow-crowned Night Heron..one of the daddies.


 Another good momma on the nest.


Momma and heron chick.. I feel so sad over their loss.



Thank you for linking up to the critter party. I appreciate the visits, comments and the support of my blogging friends..


To see more beautiful birds and cute critters, check out these two memes below.

Please visit:  I'd-Rather-B-Birdin. Thanks to the gracious host: Anni of I'd Rather-B-birdin. Also, sharing with Camera Critters. Thanks to Misty for hosting.

71 comments:

Jocee said...

Such beautiful birds, I hope they get to breed successfully.

Lynne said...

Oh my, look at the color of those Heron eggs . . . wow!

Gattina said...

How sweet ! Excellent photos !

Small City Scenes said...

Oh my goodness what could have happened. What a terrible loss. I feel so sad. I am glad you got some pictures and those eggs are stunning. MB

Unknown said...

Very sad indeed. Happy weekend, Eileen!

Alexa T said...

I've never seen such interesting birds before (not locally in Europe)... so glad to have an idea about them and their environment!! Thanks for sharing them with us! All the best! Alexa T

Carole M. said...

so sorry to hear of the loss of eggs; lovely photos from your last visit Eileen

Jo said...

OMW Eileen, these are stunning captures. Congratulations and thanks for sharing. I'm bringing up my post to link shortly. Have a great weekend. Jo

FAB said...

Nice series of images Eileen BUT the suspicious loss of eggs and chicks is disturbing.

Little Wandering Wren said...

You're right, it is sad. I hope they find out what happened, those eggs were very pretty, and they are beautiful birds.
Thanks for hosting
Wren x

Irma said...

Hi Eileen,
Beautiful photos of Kwak, very sad to read that there are eggs and chick are lost.
I hope that people not have done.
Here in the Netherlands are trees to cut, while a nest of birds of prey in it.
Terrible that people can do this.
I wish you a very nice weekend.
Best regards, Irma

Hootin Anni said...

How incredible is this?!!!! Wow.

Elaine said...

Beautiful birds. Sad that they were lost.

*Manja* said...

Tolle Aktion!
Liebe Grüße,*Manja*

Icy BC said...

The eggs are blue, like Robin's eggs..
It's sad news, and I hope they will be ok wherever they are.

Anonymous said...

This is sad news.

I appreciate you hosting. Have a nice Saturday.

Phil Slade said...

Such lovely shots of those caring adults Eileen. Losing both eggs and chicks must be extremely distressing and worrying for everyone involved in protecting the herons. Unexplained losses are very hard to accept too, and I just hope it wasn't human involvement; but it's hard to understand who would do such a shocking thing.

Thanks for hosting your party again.Have a wonderful weekend.

Sue said...

Such sweet pics of momma and baby.
Hope you have a terrific weekend, Eileen!

Connie Smiley said...

Fabulous shots! So sad with you.

EG CameraGirl said...

Wonderful photos, Eileen. I'm very disturbed that the baby birds are lost! I have never seen a Yellow-crowned Night Heron as they are very rare in my part of Ontario. I'm familiar with the black-crowned variety and I LOVE them!

Minoru Saito said...

Hi,Eileen. Your last visit photos are very beautiful. So sad for losing. Thanks for sharing. Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

Brian King said...

Beautiful shots! We don't have them here.

deb @ frugal little bungalow said...

You captured them beautifully :)

Debbie said...

so very amazing eileen!! you find the most amazing wonders of the world to photograph!!!

have a wonderful weekend!!!

diane b said...

Sad news about the chicks and eggs. The shots of the mothers on the nest are great .I love the colour of the eggs.

orchid0324 said...

OMG; your sweet and beautiful photographs made me really sad for the news. How sweet to see the '
Momma with chick'♡♡♡ It almost seems to me that your wonderful picture of one of the daddies has an appealing glance. We have no power over something, don't we...

ps. I had Soba noodle-guests today. And tomorrow I'll be visiting to our city park to see animals from invited from another city in my pref. I'll try my best visiting friends.
Night Night from Japan, Eileen♪

Sending you lots of love and hugs to my dear friend in America, xoxo Miyako*

Misty DawnS said...

Beautiful photos of a beautiful bird! I'm sorry to hear such upsetting news!

sandyland said...

Extra special revelation

TexWisGirl said...

they have pretty blue eggs. sorry about those that didn't make it.

thanks for hosting!

Andrea @ From The Sol said...

We lost our Heron Rookery to a storm about two years ago. I still haven't been able to find where they relocated, but I know they did because we have so many Herons and Egrets around. So sad is the loss of the eggs and the chicks ... I hope if it was humans (and why wouldn't that surpise me) that the people are caught and prosecuted. I don't know if the Yellow Crowned Night Herons will start another clutch or if they will have to wait until next year ... heart breaking.

Andrea @ From the Sol

Pat said...

What sad news to report.
YOur photos are beautiful. I hope a majority of the broods are successful.

rainfield61 said...

The color of eggs is fantastic, though the news is not.

carol l mckenna said...

Lovely nature shots of the bird life as always ~ Happy Weekend ~ ^_^

artmusedog and carol (A Creative Harbor)

Jeanne said...

I was recently in Charleston SC and we saw a rookerie along the ocean of these beautiful birds. I had never seen any of these before and thought they were gorgeous! Such a tragedy to have so many of these chicks missing. Your shots are lovely

Ileana said...

Beautiful photos!Have a great weekend!

Seraphinas Phantasie said...

Hi Eileen,
these bird is very special and the blue eggs are amazing and gorgeous. I´ve never seen them before.
Have a nice weekend, Eileen.
Best regards, Synnöve

Julie said...

What lovely birds and so sad about the loss the babies

DIMI said...

Hello Eileen!!
Wonderful shots of the heron bird!!Great captures!!Wow!!The Momma with chick look so cute!!Amazing photo!!Thank you for sharing!!Have a happy weekend!
Dimi...

Beth said...

Beautiful photos! I am so sorry that so many of the eggs and chicks are missing.

Jutta.K. said...

Was für wundervolle und rührende Fotos, ich bin sehr beeindruckt.
Großartige Aufnahmen !

Karen said...

Marvellous captures! Gosh, I wonder what happened to the others, so sad.

A Colorful World said...

Oh, that is so awful, Eileen! I am very sad for this terrible loss. What beautiful birds! You got some great photos, and will always have those. I hope the local population doesn't suffer too much from the tragedy.

By the way, I noticed your comment on Chris's Las Aventuras post showing the condors, and I thought you might want to check out my comment on that post. I think sometimes it is easy to blame "bullets" for lead when the situation hasn't been properly examined. I plan to see what I can find out. You might find what I said in my comment of interest. Thanks.

DeniseinVA said...

Brilliant post Eileen! I am a bit late but I was able to hook up tonight.

DeniseinVA said...

And as I read on after looking at those marvelous photos, I was greatly saddened by this story.

Anni said...

Again, thanks for linking up with the Bird D'Pot this weekend Eileen. Much appreciated.

Unknown said...

How sweet of you that you were on my blog! I found your blog by gbkoru found and have immediately registered as a reader!
I wish you also have a great weekend ..
Greetings Ulli

Bob Bushell said...

Beautiful Night Heron, I haven't seen one. Thanks Eileen.

sunshine said...

Wonderful photos, that high number is terrible loss, hopeful the others will growing up well.

HappyK said...

Great capture of bird and eggs. Sad to hear of the missing eggs.

Our photos said...

Wow, those blue eggs. Never seen that !

jp@A Green Ridge said...

Although I have never seen one until now, the loss of eggs and or chicks is sad...so sad, Eileen....:)JP

Author R. Mac Wheeler said...

Never been an ugly picture of a beautiful creature.

Ahhh...critters.

Gerald (SK14) said...

Lovely photos of the heron

Stephanie said...

Awesome images! Love the blue eggs!

Betsy Brock said...

The one baby sure will get lots of attention. So sweet! Too bad about the others, though!

Linda said...

Eileen, the thumbnail that came up in your Facebook sidebar startled me because at that size it looked like my children did. Compare with this: http://webcroft.blogspot.com/2008/11/forty-years-ago.html

Connie Smiley said...

Eileen, thanks for your ID of the Great Crested Flycatcher. I think you were spot on.

~Kim at Golden Pines~ said...

Wonderful photos! I feel sorry for the loss as well. I hope that whatever happened to them can somehow be prevented from happening again.

thewovenspoke said...

Beautiful shots of the yellow crowned night heron. It is too bad about the eggs and babies.

Diane AZ said...

Fascinating pictures! Beautiful birds, sorry to hear about the missing eggs.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

I'm so sorry to hear the sad news. Your beautiful photos from a happier time are lovely. And let us hold hope for next time.

Crafty Green Poet said...

so sad. i hope it was predators, at least that way the predators are feeding their own families and the circle of life continues. If it was humans well i hope they're caught and punished as soon as possible.

vivi ka said...

Wow! So sweet post! A great Saturday's Critters! Thank you very much for your wishes in my post! Have a beautiful day and a great new week ahead!

A Lady's Life said...

We have many herons and Canada Geese too but I have never come across any nests.But once in a while we see the chicks with the parents which is so cute.
You are so lucky to have been able to get these shots. I am sorry about the loss though.

Unknown said...

These shots are awesome but the news about the missing eggs and chicks are sad. Hope they'll know how it happened and can help prevent it in the future.

Inspired By June said...

Wonderful shots, Eileen. It's always sad when babies are lost, even eggs that haven't hatched yet. We had a bad windstorm here a few weeks ago and I found a mocking bird nest with three newborns the next morning. So sad. Thanks for sharing those lovely blue eggs, and for hosting!

NatureFootstep said...

thanks for sharing the fine images from the night herons nest. :)

Gail Dixon said...

Oh I hate when something like that happens and no one knows why. The same thing happened with our barred owls. :(

I loved your shots of the blue eggs and mommas--I can never seem to get that close to the eggs. Kudos to you on the great images and THANK YOU for linking me in over the weekend! I appreciate it so much. :)

September Violets said...

Wonderful photos of the night herons. I used to see a night heron from the train into Toronto each day, always in the same spot along the shores of Lake Ontario. I used to make a point of being on the lake-side of the train for a chance to see him. They are such exotic looking herons to me with the long feathers on their heads. Sad to hear about the missing eggs/babies, I hope it was a predator rather than humans being stupid. Wendy x

Helma said...


Oh how terrible. I hope that the yellow blob and her nest has been stolen. Or eggs at her enst. You have again geweldgie beautiful pictures of this beautiful heron. I did not know this heron but teach them to be aware when you :-)

Ela said...

Gorgeous bird and lovely shots !

Happy Monday!

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