2021 06-02 etc Green Heron Nest
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We spent about an hour each day for three days observing a green heron nest in a blackberry thicket in a wetland gully adjacent to a suburban street.
Although posts by my friend Glen Sayers previously showed 4 or 5 chicks in this nest, on our first day (May 30, 2021) there were two.
On June 2nd the sun hits the nest just after 10am. I set up and started shooting at 10:10, and stayed for 45 minutes. It was slightly cooler than our previous “heat wave” shoot, 79F in the shade.
On the scene there was one chick in the nest, hunkered down as if resting. As the sun hit the nest with more intensity, the chick got up and wandered around the nest, then the rim of the nest, then off and into the blackberry bushes. I had previously strained to think of a reason why these bushes would offer any advantage for nest placement. Today, however, it seemed to me the chick was using the recesses of the bushes around the next for shade.
The parent only visited the nest once, late in my observation period, and stayed for about 2 minutes before flying off again. During its brief time on the nest, the chick quickly crawled out of the blackberries and got up on the nest. It immediately began lunging and biting at the parent’s beak, soliciting food. During my three visits to the nest site, albeit each short, I never saw a parent with food. I also never saw a second parent visit the nest.
At one point, towards the middle of the observation time, the parent flew over the nest and landed on a tree branch about 20 yards behind. It stayed there for 5 minutes or so, looking around and doing some minor preening, before taking off again and out of view.
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Read MoreWe spent about an hour each day for three days observing a green heron nest in a blackberry thicket in a wetland gully adjacent to a suburban street.
Although posts by my friend Glen Sayers previously showed 4 or 5 chicks in this nest, on our first day (May 30, 2021) there were two.
On June 2nd the sun hits the nest just after 10am. I set up and started shooting at 10:10, and stayed for 45 minutes. It was slightly cooler than our previous “heat wave” shoot, 79F in the shade.
On the scene there was one chick in the nest, hunkered down as if resting. As the sun hit the nest with more intensity, the chick got up and wandered around the nest, then the rim of the nest, then off and into the blackberry bushes. I had previously strained to think of a reason why these bushes would offer any advantage for nest placement. Today, however, it seemed to me the chick was using the recesses of the bushes around the next for shade.
The parent only visited the nest once, late in my observation period, and stayed for about 2 minutes before flying off again. During its brief time on the nest, the chick quickly crawled out of the blackberries and got up on the nest. It immediately began lunging and biting at the parent’s beak, soliciting food. During my three visits to the nest site, albeit each short, I never saw a parent with food. I also never saw a second parent visit the nest.
At one point, towards the middle of the observation time, the parent flew over the nest and landed on a tree branch about 20 yards behind. It stayed there for 5 minutes or so, looking around and doing some minor preening, before taking off again and out of view.
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