One summer a green heron pair nested in an oak tree right next to my house above the pond area. I put a beach chair and binoculars out there and craned (ha...no pun intended) my neck all summer watching.
First it was the parents building and hanging out at the nest. Then a 3 week wait for incubation to occur! When the timing was right, each day it seemed a new beak would wave itself around just above the lip of the nest clamoring for attention. One day a fuzzy head popped up and then each day a new head until there were 5 or so. Hard to say at that point. They were less than cooperative in their lining up for count.
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Comic book birds... wildhaired and big eyed. Since they seemed to have hatched out one per day, the first hatched was always bigger than the rest and always first to do something. I may have noticed a slight favoritism to the next in line... must have identified the first hatched with my older bother, Bobby.
For about 2 more weeks I watched. I've now been under the nest for almost a month. I did go in to get food and water and to sleep.
After waving their heads around the nest for days, they started trying to climb out and cling to the edge of the nest. Eventually, with 'Bobby" in the lead by a complete day, they got out of the nest to stand precariously on the branch. Took more days and practice to walk down the branch and back as the branch got more crowded. By this time I knew it was really 5! They did line up. All feet and beaks and wild hairdos.
They were huge. How they all got back in the nest each night and under their mom I will never know. Eventually they flew away. I missed that actually occur but I saw them in neighboring trees looking ungainly and too big for their own good.
What a summer. I call it the Summer of the Green Herons. They hung around for a long time... and then grew up and went away.
I had empty nest syndrome for many summers after.
First it was the parents building and hanging out at the nest. Then a 3 week wait for incubation to occur! When the timing was right, each day it seemed a new beak would wave itself around just above the lip of the nest clamoring for attention. One day a fuzzy head popped up and then each day a new head until there were 5 or so. Hard to say at that point. They were less than cooperative in their lining up for count.
Comic book birds... wildhaired and big eyed. Since they seemed to have hatched out one per day, the first hatched was always bigger than the rest and always first to do something. I may have noticed a slight favoritism to the next in line... must have identified the first hatched with my older bother, Bobby.
For about 2 more weeks I watched. I've now been under the nest for almost a month. I did go in to get food and water and to sleep.
After waving their heads around the nest for days, they started trying to climb out and cling to the edge of the nest. Eventually, with 'Bobby" in the lead by a complete day, they got out of the nest to stand precariously on the branch. Took more days and practice to walk down the branch and back as the branch got more crowded. By this time I knew it was really 5! They did line up. All feet and beaks and wild hairdos.
I drew them as best I could.
They were huge. How they all got back in the nest each night and under their mom I will never know. Eventually they flew away. I missed that actually occur but I saw them in neighboring trees looking ungainly and too big for their own good.
What a summer. I call it the Summer of the Green Herons. They hung around for a long time... and then grew up and went away.
I had empty nest syndrome for many summers after.
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