Great Blue Heron chicks have started to hatch around the rookery and Tuesday I spotted one in a high nest sticking his head up.
The first few days the adults will tear food apart and give it to their chicks. As the chicks grow, which happens pretty quickly, the adult dangles food in front of the chicks encouraging them to grab their own meal.
Great Blue Heron Adult and Chick, with Frog
Either this chick couldn’t figure out how to get a bite of frog or wasn’t hungry, but after a minute or so the chick lost his chance.
Great Blue Heron Adult and Chick, with Frog
It took a minute or so of concentrated effort, but the adult ate the frog in one bite.
I was startled when this Yellow-bellied Sapsucker flew over my shoulder so close I could have touched him.
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
He perched on a limb overhanging the trail just ahead of me and had a look around. Whatever he was looking for wasn’t in the immediate vicinity and shortly he continued on his way.
This was a tiny meal for an Anhinga and I have no idea how they locate such a fish while swimming under water. See my post Anhinga Feeding from two years ago to see how big a fish they are capable of swallowing.
American Bitterns are known for being hard to spot, standing motionless in among camouflaging vegetation. At the end of January one had been spotted multiple times at the edge of a swamp I frequent, always near sundown making it even harder to see in the low light.
On a recent visit to the swamp I had been scanning this area as the sun illuminated it and saw nothing. I walked away to check out the corner and when I returned about 5 minutes later the sun was gone but there he was!
American Bittern
I don’t know if he flew or walked out into the open. I turned away for another minute or two and he had moved closer to me, nicely tucked behind some dead vines.