Either by instinct or from learning from a parent, this Great Blue Heron chick was defending himself from a Great Egret Intruder. This is the same nest in the Skinny Tree featured in Scram, Great Egret where the GBH adult was protecting his nest.
The chick made himself really big.
I suspect they’ve done this before and shortly the Great Egret went back to poking at sticks on the outer branches of the tree.
Incoming!
Which did not go unnoticed by the Great Blue Heron sitting on his nest.
And was’t going to be tolerated, either.
March 22, 2019.
Trees around the pond are leafing out and the green is a welcome sight after the grey and brown of winter.
The “Skinny Tree” sees lots of wading bird occupants but this is the first time I’ve seen a potential nest builder check out the roof. In fact, the only bird I remember seeing perched on top was a King Fisher.
This Great Egret took a moment to scan the sky as a low airplane passed by. The Skinny Tree is only about 3 miles (5 KM) from Charleston International Airport and Joint Base Charleston so these birds get used to sharing the skies with all sorts of aircraft.
I’m not sure how this next image might display on your various devices due to its height, but wanted to show the levels. The Great Egret was really interested in occupying a nesting site in the trees branches, which are already occupied.
In a broader and lower view I captured the Great Blue Heron driving a Great Egret away as he protected his chick, which can be seen next to the tree trunk behind the adult.
There is a touch of fall color in the “skinny tree” which earlier this year hosted one Great Blue Heron and several Great Egret families. Now the tree serves as an occasional landing spot for a passing bird.
This Anhinga chose it as a drying off spot and executed a smooth landing.
He then turned his back to the sun and spread his wings to dry off.
I’m awake!
Cool off
Visit the skinny tree
Turtle lunch?
Not this time
With his mouth full of bugs this Grackle paused a couple minutes at the edge of the pond before flying off to his nest.
I didn’t see him make the catch and have no idea how he got these two bugs in his beak at once. Maybe the effort was why he rested before heading to his nest.
He eventually flew out to this tree, aka “the skinny tree,” where his nest seemed to be in the broken Wood Duck box seen on the far side of the trunk.
An Alligator was patrolling the water around the tree. The Grackle dive-bombed the Alligator several times with no effect.
There was at least one turtle in the water and there is one Great Blue Heron and three Great Egret nests with chicks in the branches above, either of which would be more enticing to the gator.
The “Skinny Tree” so named because for its single trunk. I would never be surprised to get to the rookery and find out it had fallen over.
This season a Great Blue Heron pair is raising a family here.
These chicks are not yet four weeks old and the parents are already leaving them alone for hours. This leaves them vulnerable to attack by Great Egrets and birds of prey.
A pair of Great Blue Herons have started a nest in the “skinny tree.” On December 28 I posted that this tree hadn’t sparked much interest among the nesting birds.
These were shot with the Sony Alpha 6500, 55-210 mm lens at 1/1000 sec, 129mm.
The leafless trees in the background reflect a very harsh light which I toned down with Lightroom and Color FX Pro.
The male had a successful landing but the female had to brace herself to keep her footing.
This pair may only be testing each other out as mates. Despite bringing sticks for the nest and some attention to the female, the male flew off to take a stick to another tree. The female didn’t look pleased and eventually flew off and came back with her own stick.
I call it the “skinny tree” because there isn’t much to it. It is not completely dead, but not far from it. I’ve taken hundreds of photographs of various birds in this tree, which sits in water about 60 feet / 20 meters (as measured using Google Maps) from the edge of the pond.
As mating and nesting season has gotten under way last year’s nest, which was used by a Great Blue Heron family and the one below it used by Great Egrets, are completely gone.
This week I’ve seen a couple of Great Blues come to this spot and steal a few loose twigs left behind after late summer storms took the rest.
If there is going to be a nest here this season there is a lot of work to be done. This Heron may be holding the spot while her mate is off finding foundation branches or she may be surveying the pond for a better potential home. We are about to have some cooler weather with the next ten nights going below freezing. This might put a damper on the whole nesting business.
View a GBH in a complete nest on this spot from February, 2017
View a GBH Chick in the nest on this spot from June, 2017
