March 15, 2007 - Let's hear it for the herone Suffolk Times • March 15, 2007
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Suffolk Times photos by Barbara Stoutenburgh
above: A family of great blue herons enjoys the afternoon sun in this 30- foot -high nest In an island rookery.
lelow left: This great blue heron looks over Its nest below. These herons are found hunting alone In our
reeks and only come together during nesting time.
Below right: An all-whlte heron Is seen standing In a
pokery of great blue herons and cormorants., Herons in this aiMerhlte phase occur only in southern Florida.
Everyone knows that spring, with its warming e -
fects on the land, starts in the South and gradually
ust the other ay, while on a —wa , we saw ared=
moves to the North. Being down here in Florida,
f its
bellied woodpecker chiseling out a cavity or
we see this subtle effect of spring all around us. The
nesting site; a true sign of.spring. Soon you, too; up „
invasive Australian pines that have crept into the
landscape have just recently shed their old brown
North will hear the familiar sound of a woodpecker
hipping away at some dead tree as it hollows out
needles. Now, new green growth will take place as
the tree grows in height and width. We also see the
its new home. Spring has unlocked the world of
slee m players that we look forward to each year.
ping p y
dropping of needles and new growth in our pines at
In Florida spring is much more subtle, less obvious,
home each spring.
whereas up North it's a time of great expectation
Another sign of spring down here in Florida
and glorious change. ,
Our older son was here for a few days and took
that I've spoken of before is
when the head of the laughin
us to lunch at a local marina that had the greatest
Focus gull turns from mottled white
collection of big, shiny, white fiberglass yachts we'd
O N in the winter to black in the
ever seen. On the opposite side of the docks was a
ring of low shrubbery and small trees. As we walked
spring. At home one of the
NATURE noticeable changes in birds
along we could hear an occasional grunting coming
from winter to summer is
from the greenery There wasn't anything musical
by Paul the changing of the common
about these odd sounds but they did get us to shift
our attention from the boats and concentrate on the
Stoutenburgh starling's bill that was dark
all winter and now changes
strange calls we had he
to yellow for the courtship
eason. Those who feed the birds, I'm sure, have
It wasn't long before both Barbara and my son
started to point out the culprits; they were nesting
ioticed this transformation.
great blue herons. I've never been this close to nest -
ing herons in all the years I've been birding. They're
ttie largest of an our wras, stanamg oetween inree .
and four feet tall. It was good to see that they were
able to nest so close to man's environment, Their
loosely constructed nest
is made up of flimsy sticks I've never been
and soft debris.The great this close to
blue heron, like other her- nesting herons in
ons, is an expert stalker. It
slowly lifts first one foot all the years I've
and then the other as it been birding.
inches its way forward to
an unsuspecting meal. That meal could be a small
fish, crustacean, leech, mollusk, reptile, amphibian,
mouse, frog, etc. We could see one mottled - colored
young crouched down in the nest waiting for its
half- digested meal. Almost anything within strik-
ing distance that moves is fair game for this deadly
wader of the marsh.
I say this with some experience. Years ago I had
hoped to get close enough to get a picture of a great
blue heron feeding in a creek in Greenport. Mov-
ing as slowly as the heron does when it hunts, I put
my camera up and focused on the bird, busy with
something down in front of it, which was probably
why I was able to get as close as I did since they
spook easily in the wild. Then its head came up — it
saw me. With one tremendous jump and flopping
of those huge wings, it flew away. And what do you
think it flew away with? A long, dangling, limp eel.
This showed me that a great blue heron will eat
just about anything that comes before it. Even
though I got a picture of the heron flying away with
its prize, I didn't get what would have been the best
picture of all: the heron as it swallowed its two -foot
long eel:
Before signing off on our nesting great blue her-
ons we made plans fora boat7trip out to one of the
local heronries across the bay from us. Our skipper
was a woman who was more than cooperative. We
traveled in a large pontoon boat that was ideal for
our purpose; large and steady, with a bimini top to
keep us out of the sun.
We could see the birds nesting in the tall trees
of the island long before we reached them. When
we throttled down and drifted, there above us was
what we had come for, nesting birds. Barbara was in
a world of her own as she clicked on one nest, then
another.
One of the most interesting things that turned up
was a pure white heron (not a great egret), one our
skipper said was here last year. With a little research
When we got back we found out there is a white
phase of the great blue heron, also distinguished by
its yellowish legs and yellow bill. This white phase
was once thought to be a separate species, but now
that has changed. The big, white bird we were seeing
was the same bird as the great blue, but all white. .
What a wonderful way to end our day, finding that
rare white heron nesting in with the great blue her-
ons.
P.S. On our way back from photographing, we sa
the colorful pink roseate spoonbills roosting on an-
other island. This is the first time they've been here
in any numbers, which might mean they are going
to start to nest here — something for us.to look for-
ward to.
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