Nesting season for seabirds seems to be considered the March - August timeframe; it actually surprised me to learn this since it's 6 months - half the year!
The Tri-Color Heron (TCH) in the above photo is one out of the 2 pair of fledglings I've seen. They seem to be the most reclusive of the birds I've watched here. The nests were deep and out of sight, and the juveniles really only became visible once they were flying pretty competently. The second TCH nest, in a different mangrove, was even more difficult to observe. Their names were Homer and Josephine, but simply called HoJo since it wasn't possibly to identify which bird I was seeing. The name of Homer came from the names of the reclusive hoarder/hermit Collyer brothers from NYC (Homer and Langley), since, well, the behavior just seemed to fit!
Since this photo, I've only seen Mohawk Boy and Einstein from the first nest one time - together on the shore and seemingly losing their brownish color as they moult into adult colors. The photo below is (I believe) one of the HoJo twins taken from afar. They are spending time on the front side of the building by a larger lake, and harder to capture in a photo.
It's been a fun time to watch all this activity, but I can only observe a couple remaining nests at this point, and they are deep in the mangroves. Occasionally a head will pop out as the nestlings get more curious, but there will still be some more "first flights" to observe.
Circling back to look at some of our old friends ...... Moe has grown without siblings. The two remaining eggs never did hatch and are now no longer in the nest. He has grown quite large with no competition, and is now "flap-hopping" between branches. I saw a "first flight" 2 days ago - a short 15 foot flight to another bush and then back again.
The Great Blue Heron (GBH) nest activity that served as the kick-off for this blog has been done for a while now. The biggest mystery to me has been why only one of the GBH chicks survived (and why he never got a name!) Early on, there were what looked like 2 healthy chicks and suddenly one was gone. I wonder about a predator (not many exist, but a Bald Eagle would suffice), or simply falling out of the nest. Regardless, the survivor (who I now call "Junior") is no longer around the nest at all but spending the day hunting. There are no more family outings and I wonder if he will be welcome to stay. He is the size of the adults now, and the only way to identify him is by some moulting feathers and the different head color of a juvenile.
The mother is around all the time, but I no longer see them together. Here she is by a pond at the front of the building. Notice the different head color from Junior.
I haven't talked a lot about the anhinga nests. There were MANY, and MANY chicks as well. But I never saw any struggles with flying - they all seemed to not be drama queens and just get on with their business. They have moved around out of their nests and still are very present in the mangroves.
And a few new sights recently - a Cattle Egret passing through the other evening! I have never seen one around here; they don't tend to nest by the water so I don't expect to see more of them. And I saw a new crop of Common Moorhens on Saturday! Also called a "swamp chicken" (or a "chicken duck" by one of my friends), I have always known them as Common Moorhens. However, it seems that a transition of moniker to Common Gallinule is underway. Just like when scientists decided that Pluto was no longer a planet and what we learned in school about their being 9 planets went straight down the pooper, scientists in the American Ornithologists union apparently decided that a split from the Moorhen family was justified. It seems to me they missed the mark since "Common" is still in the name, and how is that complimentary?
And, of course, the Great White Egrets are still here. Although I saw no nesting activity from them, I hope there are some juveniles around that I haven't yet seen.
So, as this nesting season wraps up, here are a few of my favorite photos from the past several months!
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