While Charlie Fineran’s Photo of the Week this week is not a beautiful panorama or pretty setting, this photo of a Skunk Cabbage, taken on Friday, March 16^th may actually be a beautiful image to some, in the sense that, it re-enforces the fact, SPRING IS COMING!!!  I observed many of these hardy plants sprouting up from the wet water/snow covered forest floor, amid the Pequest River’s riparian woods.  I came across this photo approaching the Pequest Great Blue Heron Rookery, which also re-enforces the fact that Spring is coming with quite a few early birds preparing their nests.  I know it is still pretty cold, still windy and still snow on the ground BUT warmer days are coming!!!

My first visit to this site several years ago was a real eye opener for me!!  It was surprising in the sense, it represented the exact opposite behavior that I would have expected, after watching these large birds over the years!  Usually I would see one lone Great Blue Heron, slowly and stealthily  stalking prey along some body of water or I would observe one flying overhead, always assuming that a pair would make a large nest somewhere off by themselves.  Doing a little research, discovered they actually like to nest in colonies, so then I ‘kinda’ envisioned, maybe a lot of trees with one large nest in each as the colony!  When I arrived,  I observed several huge Sycamore trees, with many large nests in each large Sycamore tree.  Let’s substitute the word condominium instead of colony!!!  This is close quarter living!!

Several observations:  Their nests are large and made of sticks, looking at them, they are not the neatest looking homes, just a bunch of sticks placed together, BUT, they must be WELL BUILT!!  I have been visiting here for several years and I don’t notice any ever knocked down or blown away!!  Looking at these birds and observing these birds stalking and hunting, they are really quite graceful, many times freezing instantly in position and place, (often for a minute or more) just waiting for that, lightning fast strike with the long bill ending only what I would describe as a HUNTING BALLET.  Most birds actually have a ‘nice or pretty sounding call’  Folks, there is nothing nice or pretty about a Great Blue Heron’s croaking or squaking call!!  Let me elaborate on this.  When walking through the woods near their rookery for the first time, I was very thankful, I knew what their calls sounded like!!  Because, if I hadn’t known that and I heard those sounds I don’t know what I would be expecting to run into in the woods!!  AND A BIRD would be at the bottom of my choices!!  Most birds in flight seem to scamper, dart or race through the air with impressive precision movements while going to multiple places and then scampering off again.  Watching a Great Blue, is almost like looking up when you hear an airplane, you observe a steady one way graceful path across the sky, going from here to there.  Don’t let that fool you, observing these birds approach their nests and wind their way through the forest canopy to their nest site and then precariously perch on what looks to be too small a branch – SIMPLY AMAZING & keep in mind they have to avoid their neighbors nest close to theirs!!

Their Habitat is Lakes, ponds, rivers and marshes.  Usually found along the edge of water looking for fish or frogs, its main food.  It also feeds on small mammals, reptiles and occasionally birds.  Most Blue Herons migrate south in the fall, but, a few remain in the North during winter, often falling victim to the severe weather.  Their nests have 3-7 pale greenish blue eggs on a shallow platform of sticks lined with finer material, usually in a tree.  Nest in colonies.

When you go to my Flickr sites I believe between the photos and movie clips you will see some of the observations I tried to describe in the writing above!

It is truly amazing and fun to observe how Nature has outfitted each animal with special skills and equipment in order to survive and reproduce in life.  I hope you enjoy your visits with this truly amazing hunter, The Great Blue Heron.

Please visit my Flickr site for photos of the Great Blue Heron – https://www.flickr.com/photos/charliefineran/albums/72157633060663579

Please visit my Flickr site for photos of the Great Blue Heron Rookery – https://www.flickr.com/photos/charliefineran/albums/72157633204602224

Please visit my Flickr site for photos of the Great Blue Heron Rookery 2015 – https://www.flickr.com/photos/charliefineran/albums/72157651942466935

Please visit my Flickr site for photos showing The Great Blue Heron hunting – https://www.flickr.com/photos/charliefineran/albums/72157644414180750

Enjoy Your Open Space, Charlie Fineran