The Rookery

Penny and I have been visiting Veteran's Park on the island since the middle of 2014.  It is an easily accessible heron nesting area that we call "The Rookery".  The first time we visited the trees were full of nests and juvenile herons and their parents.  We've visited then site about a dozen times now and taken at least 300 pictures each visit.  So if you do the math we each have literally thousands of pictures of the place.

Take enough pictures and you are bound to get some good ones.

3 babies waiting for food.

nest building

 osprey highlighted by the sun

blue heron

dragonfly

heron with only 1 foot

dove

getting bigger

full wingspan

more nest building

 Since we've been going there there has been a lot of construction to build a fun park.  It has encroached right up to the rookery and we are afraid it will drive the birds out. Only time will tell.  The landscape has changed, particularly at ground level.  The tree count is about the same but all the lower level brush has been removed and the fun park is now pushing right up to the herons land..

Here are pictures taken 9-months apart:

june 2014

feb 2015

some construction damage right up to the rookery

landing

head shot

 Today it was cold and rainy.  Penny is stressed because her sister is sick and she's working on a particularly difficult large quilt.  So after breakfast at Mother Earths she wanted to visit the rookery.  It is a happy place for her.  This time we didn't have our cameras-we just went to enjoy.

The first thing we saw was a bald eagle perched on a light post.  We have never seen a bald eagle there before.  It was a nice start.  When we got to the pond there were over a dozen heron standing around it looking cold.  Once again the largest collection of heron we've seen standing in one place.  The rookery did a good job lifting Penny's mood.