Saturday, May 9, 2009

Great Blue Heron Rookery

On our way to the farmer's market yesterday, I happened to see these huge nests in a sycamore tree. I yelled, "Oh, my gosh, what is that?" My sister Robin quickly pulled the car over and said, "Is that a Great Blue Heron Rookery?" She jumped out of the car so fast, I'm surprised she remembered to put it into park.


There are 15-20 nests on the leafless sycamore tree to your right, in the background. If you click on the photos, you will see them a tad better, you can even see some of the adults perching on the side of the nests. We live close to an area with a lot of wetlands. We see Great Blue Herons quite often, actually one flies over our house every morning around 8:00. But, we had no idea a rookery was close by (let alone located behind the sewage plant).


We tried to get a closer view, but couldn't. They seem to be on private land, but that doesn't always stop us. We tried to find a way to get a closer look. There's my law breaking sister on private land.


I'm quite frustrated with the pictures because we couldn't get any closer and my telephoto lens to my old camera has gone missing! Today, I'm tearing the house apart in hopes of finding it.


This is what a photo might look like if I could have gotten closer.....I got it from EEK! The EEK website has some great information on Great Blue Herons.

Another closer view by Mel Harder.


Needless to say, we didn't make it to the farmer's market.....too busy gasping in awe at our amazing discovery!

10 comments:

Hippy Goodwife said...

That's awesome! We have a Great Blue Heron Rookery not far from our house. I love to hang out there in the spring and watch them.

Erin said...

Nice post. It brought back memories for me of when we lived in CA and were surrounded by many great blue herons. They are pretty amazing! Happy Mother's Day.

dongdong said...

LOL! bird loving runs in your family?! your sis is too funny. She seems so fun!

we saw a bird nesting yesterday. I'll have to post it on J's blog and see if any one know what kind it is. :)

Anonymous said...

What a happy find! We have a GBH near hour house, too. So beautiful. Have a lovely day today :-)

Tammy said...

That is pretty darn cool, lol!! We always freak out when we see birds, too. We live right next to a river, and there are bald eagles flying around all the time. You think we'd get used to it, but we don't. :)

Erin said...

That's awesome! We actually saw one here at a nature preserve/ park nearby recently, and although I had my camera on me, I completely froze with astonishment and before I could reach for it to take a picture, some kids ran towards it with excitement and off he flew. Such a beautiful creature! Hope you have a wonderful mama's day. :)

Mona said...

I've never seen a nest like that. We have a great blue heron living nearby, but I've never actually searched for its nest. Now I know what to look for :)

Leanne said...

Fabulous fabulous! and I love that this discovery changed your plans for the day....what a wonderful find.

sarah in the woods said...

Wow! I'd love to see that!

Starry Nites said...

A couple of years ago, I saw for the first time a flock of GBH's flying together. They were in a v-formation. (I'd love it if you privately told me where you find a farmer's mkt. in our area, and where that rookery is!)