I first mentioned the Great Blue Heron colony at Lake Hope a little over a month ago when the Great Backyard Bird Count was in full swing. At that time we located lots of nests far off in the sycamore trees, but no actual birds. Well, we've been back several times since then and have seen a handful of herons.
Unfortunately my meager 80-200mm zoom lens cannot even begin to approach acceptable pictures of these birds and nests that are so far off in the distance. Even when using a tripod, it's hard to get the camera to focus on the birds instead of one of the many branches that is between the camera and the birds. Instead, I just have to modify the photo to give you the general idea of "here are the nests, and, oh yeah, that's a heron."
Mr. (or Mrs.) skinny legs hangs out on the nest.
Our most recent visit to the colony/rookery/heronry was this past Sunday, right in the middle of the day (2:00, maybe), and I was actually surprised to find any herons around. I think there were 5 or 6 there, one of which was surely sitting on eggs because I could only see a head sticking out of the nest. There was also a grouping of them just kind of "standing around" at the top of a tree, but not really on a nest. It almost felt as if they were standing guard, but of what?
I messed with this picture quite a bit to try to show some of the coloring of the bird's underside.
Subsequent manipulation led to this interesting rendition.
Not sure how many more times we'll make it out there before the trees leaf out, but if we go again and see some activity, I'll let you know!
PHOEBE NEST UPDATE: Things at the nest have been pretty quiet lately. She seems to stop in only a few times a day, and very briefly at that. It would seem that nest construction is complete, but again, we still have no idea if she's started laying or not.
