Herons and Pileated Woodpeckers
This was certainly the most exciting birding moment of the spring! A birding companion had been there to see the herons and heard the pileated calling but couldn’t spot them. It turns out that the babies make just as much noise as the adults and these little ones were on the far side of a dead tree in the pond. Walking through the brush a bit, they were easily visible. He was so kind as to bring me there a couple of days later to see for myself.
Here is the single baby that was there when I visited, calling loudly for food.
You can see that it’s a male by the red going all the way to the beak. Two days later, he was foraging along the floor of the forest. I know this because I startled him when I arrived and he flew away.
Here is the Mama flying in to feed him.
And here is the Papa. In a couple of these shots you can see his tongue sticking out.
The Great Blue Heron babies were incredibly cute. They look so prehistoric. I remember when I saw a heron for the first time through a train window on my way to northern Vermont. It was completely magical. No matter how many of them I see nowadays, it is never boring.
Close to the rookery, I snapped a picture before getting into the clearing. Two nests in the same tree.
Then the parent to the lower level nest arrived with the challenge of feeding 4 hungry growing chicks. She/he fed, then backed off, and then went down to the melée of their hungry beaks again, over and over.
And the parent looked into the skies and was gone. The chicks seemed baffled. “Where’d she go?”
And finally the mosquitoes became too intent on eating me, and I left as well.