Florida Shorebirds

 July 22, 2022 The first chick from the new Little Blue Heron nest has been growing quickly. Say hello to Moe; named as the first of an anticipated 3 chicks, the others are destined to be Larry and Curley. He is only a couple of days old in these photos. I was out of town for a while and feared missing the arrival of Larry and Curley. Alas, as of July 17, the eggs are grubbier but still unhatched. It looks like they are no longer viable, and Larry and Curley will just be shells of themselves. Moe has become quite large, and any chicks now born with that kind of size disadvantage would not survive for long. As of July 21, you can see Moe giving the "side-eye" to the eggs, wondering when he might have some siblings to bully. And at this point, Moe is approximately 3 weeks old. One egg seems to be cracked at the bottom and Mom is rarely there, so it seems she has given up as well and is concentrating on feeding Moe. Moe is a week or more away from first flight, but he is venturi...

 June 30, 2022 The Little Blue Heron chicks that we've been watching are pretty much out on their own now. They are exploring all around this area, and seldom return to their nesting tree. Flight skills are looking pretty polished, and the "baby feather" wild hairdo's have mostly disappeared. I occasionally see 3 together and wonder if they are our old friends - Huey, Dewey and Louie! But it REALLY is hard to tell them apart! The Tri-Color Herons have mostly disappeared from the scene as well, very quickly, it seems. In the last 10 days, I have only seen one, and there's no telling if it's Mohawk Boy or Einstein! The Great Blue Heron is now a loner. I haven't seen the family together in a while. He still returns to the nest, but doesn't spend a lot of time there. Last time, I concluded with a photo of NEW side by side nests in a closer tree - one Anhinga and one Little Blue Heron. There are now hatchlings in both. The Anhingas hatched over a week ago...

 Jun 13, 2022 Starting off this time with the Great Blue Heron chick, who was the original motivation for this entire blog series! This guy now appears to be fully grown. He comes back to his tree a couple times each day and still sleeps in or around the nest. It's really hard to believe that just 2 months ago he was the size of a football. I've been astounded by the rate of growth of all these birds. This one is exploring on his own most of the time now, and seems to be feeding himself, although mom is seldom very far away. The Little Blue Heron chicks (will be white for some time still) are now all flying around and don't seem to return to their nests at all anymore. They have spread out pretty dramatically around the lake, but still take flying lessons, or just group flights with an adult leading the way. It seems that, so far, there have not been any losses. I have taken particular interest in the Tri-Color Heron chicks that we talked about last time. Their nest was b...

 Jun 1, 2022 The Little Blue Herons have really taken to the sky since the last post! Often in the morning, an adult (blue) will take a bunch of the fledglings for a flight around the lake. This morning they also ventured out into the bayou before returning. A few, who presumably have less confidence than the others, will peel off and end their outing early. Most are no longer sleeping in their nests, which are getting a little worse for the wear. They re-distribute themselves around and within the trees. Consequently, I haven't see our named trio of Huey, Dewey and Louie together for several days. Although their heads are still a little fuzzy, it's clear that they're maturing. But not so much that they still don't want meal hand-outs from the parents! Sadly, so far it's proven nearly impossible to capture images of these flights in progress. They start and end very quickly, and not on any sort of schedule. The Great Blue Heron has also now taken to the air! After...

 May 21, 2022 This past week has seen a lot of activity by the Little Blue Herons. What started as flitting between branches (like Woodstock in Peanuts) has turned into flights of 20-30 feet - even to neighboring  trees.  As they have become more mobile, many more are now visible. They've emerged from deeper in the trees. The tree I have been mostly watching turns out to have had 10 chicks in various places. And that same tree still has a tangle of Anhingas near the top (although I have yet to see them fly). The solitary egg that I observed last time seems to now have disappeared, although I'll keep looking. Huey, Dewey and Louie still are sticking together for the most part, even as they travel around. Others are also now much more visible.... The Great Blue Heron is still sitting tight. He has hopped around a bit, but shows no real indication of being ready for flight. This next photo just shows him in the background from the tree with the LBH chicks. To give a sense of...

 May 15, 2022 All of the Little Blue Heron chicks, from multiple nests, are now starting to hop from branch to branch with the aid of a little flapping of wings. I have yet to see an actual flight, but it sure seems like it will be soon. I have spied about 5 or 6 neighboring nests in the same tree, and the chicks return to their own nest at night (and, it seems, to be fed), but there is a lot of socializing going on. Here are the 3 from the first nest I saw - I call them Huey, Dewey & Louie. Here they are with mom after feeding. In the closest nest to this one (with only one chick observed), a lone egg showed up last week. They are both looking at it like they've never seen one before ("Where did this come from?"). I don't have a lot of hope for this egg hatching, or for the chick surviving if it hatches. Meanwhile, a couple trees over, I am continuing to watch the Great Blue Heron chick. This is a sad case - he has been trying out his wings by stretching them whe...

 May 5, 2022 The first nest I observed and wrote about here is the Great Blue Heron, which started with 2 chicks but is now down to 1. Although it's hard to tell, it seems to be around 2 months after hatching, and that is the typical time for a first flight. So far, I've seen no indication of an interest on the chick's part, but it could happen at any time! Other nests are becoming more visible now as well. Last week, Little Blue Herons were observed in a nest in a closer Mangrove. There are 3 chicks there, and from a different angle I recently saw a second next in this vicinity (this with a single chick). I have seen several feedings by the parents, in both nests. These "Little Blues" will develop blueish-gray mottled patches as they mature, when they start flying they will be easy to mistake for a Snowy Egret due to their white color when they fledge. In about 1.5 - 2 years they will take on the blue of the adults. So, why 3 chicks in one nest, and only a sin...