Rookery at Ocean City 4

Tags

bird paparazzi, Ocean City Welcome Center, photography, postaday, yellow-crowned night heron

In the first post for this series 11 days ago, I posted pictures of a Yellow-crowned Night Heron tending to her five eggs. Yesterday, I went back there and saw that the eggs have become young chicks covered with down, barely able to stand up. There were about twenty photographers gathered on the sidewalk above the nest, all vying to take pictures of the herons.

As I got there, the male heron had just landed with a twig in his beak. The female will take it and add it to the nest.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron arriving with twig.

Female taking twig from male.

Female adding twig to nest.

There were five eggs, but I only see three chicks. I wonder what happened.

Female and chicks.

Mother heron proceeded to feed the chicks.

Female feeding chicks.

Afterwards, she spread out her wings to shield her children from the hot sun. She kept her eyes closed, perhaps taking a well-deserved nap.

Female shielding chicks from sun.

Following are pictures of the Ocean City Welcome Center and the bird paparazzi.

Ocean City Welcome Center.

Bird paparazzi.

Rookery at Ocean City 2

Tags

glossy ibis, little blue heron, ocean city, photography, postaday, yellow-crowned night heron

Yesterday, in this series first post, I wrote that it was late in the season.This was because I saw many juvenile birds at the rookery, and only one nest with unhatched eggs.

Juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Herons.

There were some juvenile Glossy Ibises, very hungry ones that did not give their parents any respite as they kept demanding for more food. They caused a lot of commotion from one end of the rookery to the other, juveniles chasing their parents to get food from their bills!

Juvenile Glossy Ibis.

Glossy Ibises, adult and juvenile.

I also saw the following juvenile, which I am guessing is a Little Blue Heron. If so, it would be a first sighting for me. If you know it is a different bird, please tell me.

Juvenile Little Blue Heron.

Rookery at Ocean City

Tags

ocean city, photography, postaday, rookery, yellow-crowned night heron

Ocean City, NJ is a resort town in South Jersey on an island which can be reached via a causeway. Driving on the causeway, before arriving in Ocean City, there is a turn-off for a Welcome Center. From a sidewalk right next to the center, every Spring and Summer it is quite easy to take pictures of Herons, Ibises, Egrets, and many other birds that fly in from the South to breed and raise their chicks. The sidewalk is almost as tall as the rookery trees, so one can look down on their nests and watch activities from breeding to incubating and finally fledging just before the birds migrate South. The birds seemed unperturbed by all the human lookers and photographers.

I missed going there last year, and this year I only managed to get to the rookery this past weekend. It is late in the season, but I still saw a Yellow-crowned Night Heron nest with unhatched eggs. The tired-looking mother had just stood up to scratch herself.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

After some more preening, she tidied up the nest.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

Then she sat down and resumed incubating. The eggs should be hatching in a few more days.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

Sunday Odds and Ends

Tags

avocet, cormorant, Edwin B Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, photography, postaday, yellow-crowned night heron

As a side effect of hurricane Philippe, we are being drenched with rain today, and I am staying home. Here are a few shots taken over the past several weeks that did not fit into any previous post.

Cormorants. They were moving fast in the water as evidenced by the wake they created.

Another group of Cormorants taking off.

Squirrel eating a walnut from our trees.

American Avocet.

American Avocet.

I am guessing the following two birds are immature Yellow-crowned Night Herons. October has been warm this year, and these two had not yet migrated South.

Juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

Juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

Rookery Scenes

Tags

Black-crowned Night Heron, Ocean City Welcome Center, photography, postaday, rookery, yellow-crowned night heron

Yesterday the rookery next to Ocean City Welcome Center was very busy, with photographers and birds. The former brought their long lenses firmly anchored to bulky tripods, or to study arms. The latter, especially the younger ones, were up to their natural feistiness.

Black-crowned Night Heron.

I tried to shoot a few bird-in-flight pictures, but ended up discarding most of them.  Below is one of the better images.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron in flight.

Two juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron did not let up on their play acting, and I saw that other young ones in nearby nests were behaving likewise. Perhaps it’s a part of their growing up, preparing themselves for an independent life in a few more weeks,

Young Yellow-crowned Night Herons. I don’t know why the one on the right was showing his throat.

The one on the left promptly responded.

Young Yellow-crowned Night Heron on left: “Keep it closed, capice?”

Wordless Wednesday

Tags

allium, daylily, glossy ibis, hen, photography, postaday, rooster, wordless wednesday, yellow-crowned night heron

Allium in the rain.

Daylily.

Daylily.

Glossy Ibis.

Young Yellow-crowned Night Herons.

Rooster and Hens.

Heron Sibling Rivalry

Tags

Ocean City Welcome Center, photography, postaday, sibling rivalry, yellow-crowned night heron

Yesterday at the rookery next to Ocean City Welcome Center I took many pictures of heron nests and their occupants, as well as of other birds flying and nesting in the area. However, I think you may enjoy looking at the ones below, which offer a unique perspective on sibling rivalry.

A pair of young Yellow-crowned Night Heron, they have grown up quite a bit since last week, were confronting each other, and the facial expressions of one of them are priceless.

Young Yellow-crowned Night Heron to opponent: “You want to fight? Come on!”

Young Yellow-crowned Night Heron to opponent: “Oh no! He is really going to get me!”

Young Yellow-crowned Night Heron: “Please, I didn’t mean it!”

Young Yellow-crowned Night Heron: “Mommy! Help! He is going to kill me!”

Young Yellow-crowned Night Heron: “Aaaargh!”

The above reminds me of another photo I took last year, at around this same time.

Young Red Foxes, May 2015.

Rookery Flights

Tags

Black-crowned Night Heron, grackle, photography, postaday, yellow-crowned night heron

This past Sunday, as I stood by the side of the Ocean City Welcome Center to photograph Night Heron nests, there were many herons flying in and out of the rookery every few minutes. I tried to swing my camera around and aimed at them, but they were so fast that I never knew whether I managed to capture any of them. Actually, I did miss most of them, but the following somehow came out rather well.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

Black-crowned Night Heron.

Same Black-crowned Night Heron, a fraction of a second later.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron carrying a stick back to nest.

This Grackle had just landed in a tree. It had some kind of berries in its beak.

Night Herons Nest Activities

Tags

Black-crowned Night Heron, Ocean City Welcome Center, photography, postaday, yellow-crowned night heron

The Night Heron hatchlings from last week are now wide awake, clamoring for attention and food. You can see them in the following photos and the two short videos at the end of this post.

Newborn Yellow-crowned Night Herons.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron mother: “Open wide!”

One Yellow-crowned Night Heron nest still had a few more eggs to hatch.

I finally located a Black-crowned Night Heron nest.

Black-crowned Night Heron and hatchlings. The video is right below.

The following video shows activities at a Yellow-crowned Night Heron nest.

 

Night Herons

Tags

Black-crowned Night Heron, Ocean City Welcome Center, photography, postaday, yellow-crowned night heron

Yesterday was the first time I used my camera to shoot a short video of a Yellow-crowned Night Heron tending to its babies in their nest. It is a little noisy, but here it is anyway so that you can see the interaction between mother and babies.

Going through my files from yesterday, I found one of an immature heron, probably a Black-crowned Night Heron.

Immature Black-crowned Night Heron.

And here’s one of an adult heron carrying a twig.

Black-crowned Night Heron.

Hatchlings

Tags

Black-crowned Night Heron, glossy ibis, great egret, hatchling, Ocean City Welcome Center, photography, postaday, yellow-crowned night heron

As predicted, the eggs in the Night Heron nests have begun to hatch. I went to the Ocean City Welcome Center today to look at them, and saw little balls of fur moving while the parents were busy preening or redecorating their nests.

Yellow-crowned Night Herons with new hatchlings in nest.

Yellow-crowned Night Herons planning redecoration.

At another nest, the male heron brought a twig back.

Female heron: “What took you so long?” Note that one egg still had not hatched.

Male heron passing twig to female.

While he flew away to look for other twigs, she tidied up their nest.

At yet another nest, no eggs had hatched.

All the eggs were still whole.

There were many other birds around the herons. I only managed to get shots of Ibises and Great Egret.

Great Egret throwing up food.

Several Glossy Ibises were flying around. Maybe they also had nests in the rookery.

Black-crowned Night Heron. They also had nests but those were well hidden in the rookery trees.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron on the hunt.

Eggs

Tags

Black-crowned Night Heron, Ocean City Welcome Center, photography, postaday, yellow-crowned night heron

Yesterday I went back to Ocean City Welcome Center to check on the Night Herons, both Yellow-Crowned and Black-Crowned kinds. They now have eggs, and this was the first time I was able to photograph bird eggs in their nests.

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron eggs. The parents left them untended for about a minute.

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron re-arranging nest.

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron breaking another branch to add to nest.

Black-Crowned Night Heron with eggs.

Black-Crowned Night Heron with eggs.

In case your are wondering, here’s a picture of Ocean City Welcome Center.

Ocean City Welcome Center.

And here’s a shot of the place from where I’ve been photographing the Night Herons.

Observation railing at Ocean City Welcome Center. Two photographers are in the picture, one at the railing, and another walking in the shadows on a path below.

Finally, a photo of a Night Heron incubating.

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron incubating.

Incubation lasts up to 25 days, so next week, there may be new hatchlings.

Breaking Branch

Tags

Ocean City Welcome Center, photography, postaday, yellow-crowned night heron

Last Sunday, as I watched the Night Herons at the Ocean City Welcome Center, I kept hearing loud noises as if someone was breaking branches. It turned out that it was the herons themselves. As you can see from the photo below, these herons have very sturdy, thick bills.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

In fact, they are known as crab eaters, eating whole crabs by crushing them with their bills before swallowing them. With larger crabs, they grab them with their bill and then shake them violently to break them up into smaller pieces. Their bills are like those steel crab crackers that they have at restaurants that serve crabs.

A the start of breeding season, the herons have to build nests where the females will lay their eggs. They go around their neighborhood and use their bills to break dead branches and bring the pieces back to their nests.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron: “We need more branches.”

Heron seized branch with bill.

Heron jumping up and down to break branch.

Got one!

Back to nest with broken branch.

Depositing branch at nest.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Tags

Black-crowned Night Heron, Ocean City Welcome Center, photography, postaday, rookery, yellow-crowned night heron

The Welcome Center in Ocean City, NJ is right next to a rookery with many kinds of birds, including Yellow-crowned Night Herons. These herons are active during daylight hours, in contrast to the Black-crowned Night Heron that are nocturnal. The herons arrived a little over two weeks ago, but within a week they had been busy courting, choosing their partners, and building nests. I took the following photos last Sunday.

Yellow-crowned Night Heron standing next to a nest, thinking about what else could be added to it.

As a female Yellow-crowned Night Heron works on her nest, a male approaches.

“Move over, I want to help!”

He tried to impress her with a display of feathers.

At another nest, a male Yellow-crowned Night Heron brought a branch to add to the nest.

Meanwhile the Black-crowned Night Herons were starting to wake up.

Black-crowned Night Heron. “Those yellow-crowned cousins sure make a lot of noise!”

Black-crowned Night Heron:”Yeah, what’s all the fuss about?”