Florida: At the Heronries

On our April 2012 visit to Florida, we found that being a few weeks later in the year than on our usual winter visits made quite a difference. The birds around us were in the full flush of the breeding season, displaying to their mates, nest-building, feeding their babies, or shepherding their fledged chicks through the reeds. At Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray, this frenzied activity was being carried on, as usual, under the eyes and lenses of strollers, birders and photographers on the wetland boardwalks. Eileen and I were delighted to be of their number.

The most obvious centres of activity were shrub-covered islets covered with mixed nesting colonies of (mostly) herons, egrets, and Anhingas (Anhinga anhinga).  One more distant patch had been taken over by a rookery of Would Storks (Mycteria americana). This post focuses almost entirely on the activity at one particular heronry, not far from the beginning of the Wakodahatchee boardwalk.

Our colony was being shared by four different species of Heron:  Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias), Great Egrets (Ardea alba),  Tricolored Herons (Egretta tricolor)  and Cattle Egrets (Bubulcus ibis).

Anhingas nested here too.  They frequently nest in single-species colonies, but at Wakodahatchee we found pairs sharing the same nesting bushes as the herons.  Anhingas feed their young in the nest for about six weeks, and it is rather startling to watch a fairly large nestling shoving its spear of a bill down its parent's throat for a meal of regurgitated fish.

The various heron species seemed to be at different stages in their nesting cycle. The Great Egrets were feeding young.  

Over the course of our visits we watched their two voracious nestlings grow ever larger, thanks to the efforts of their undoubtedly exhausted parents.

Either the Tricolored Herons had their nest extremely well hidden, or they were still in the process of setting up shop. 

We saw no chicks or nest-building activity.  I did managed to photograph birds in what seemed to be quite agitated display, with plumes stiffly elevated in all directions.

At the top of the rookery, one pair of Great Blue Herons added to the superstructure of their nest, flying in one after the other with impossibly large sticks… 

...which they presented to each other with much ritualized bowing and scraping.

In another Great Blue nest the young were still present, but appeared to be nearly full-grown.

Finally, the Cattle Egrets, like the Great Egrets, were busy feeding young…

..while their nestlings appeared every bit as hungry as their larger compatriots, the Great Egret nestlings in the next nest over.