Day101

April 11, 2021

14 heron counted today

I thought it might be interesting to focus in on one nest instead of the entire rookery, but I found it difficult to do.  I chose nest 2 because that was the nest the first bird settled on.  He arrived on March 20th and by the 24th was with a female in #2   Now the female is sitting on eggs and that nest isn't very interesting to photograph.  It is the highest nest in this picture.  Around May 15th it will be interesting again.

There was a lot of activity in the trees today.  14 adult herons were observed.  I counted 12 at one time, but I'd seen birds fly towards the upper pond.  So neighbors Jen and Tom had counted 14.  

There were 8 active nests.  

Apparently the way to differentiate between male and female is 3 fold.  Males are larger, they have longer beaks, and they have puffy down on the back of their heads.  Of course you have to see them together in order to make those observations.  The puffy down is hard to see.

The osprey came by today.  This is the first time I've seen him this spring.  I didn't see any other big birds up there.  Driving to Northampton I saw a vulture, but no hawks, very odd for me.

I ate my lunch at Highland Pond.  The  turtles are active.  I love them.  I walked down to turtle log to see them.  Felt good.  It's hard for me, but I think I should be doing it.  In two weeks time I'm going back to the pool. 

The long spell of blue skies and perfect Spring weather is coming to a halt tonight and for the next few days we will have rain.  I won't complain, although it's been wonderful watching to world spring alive again.