Heron Head Size ? it's a legit question!

[Nevermore44]

Our bay window hangs out over the pond on the house side ... so I wouldn't be able to bring the pergola out without have it jog around the roof somehow. (side story.. this weekend it was pouring out and I actually fend the fish some broken up cheerios from the window)

I guess herons are getting more numerous in our area too. I went for 6+ years with not issues.. and only seeing one once in a blue moon anywhere in the area. But now I can't count the number i've see just this year. Even when I am miles from the house and see one flying over...I think "that suckers is going right for my house" and get angry and shake my fist at it.

With a lot of industrial/office parks being built over the years... they all have retention ponds ... which are stocked... and you see the herons hunting them frequently. The largest pond was on the news talking about the heron rookery on the treeline next to it. So I just want to take the daily worry out of play.

 

[Nevermore44]

So I swung by the large pond that's a 3 or so miles from my house to see what's going on.. and here's a shot from across the pond (couple hundred feet wide by many more wide). And low and behold... the trees were packed with herons nests. You can see a few birds standing in the tree on the right. They are so much closer to each other then i would think they would like to be. The tree line was many times wider then this shot... but the herons were clustered in these trees with just a few farther down. There were also tons of Double Crested Cormorants.... some in the water and some of the trees had a lot of them. Kinda ominous looking to see a bare tree full of large black birds sanding straight up. And finally... there were a few Great Egrets flying around.

 

[gliebig]

Cormorants are the worst.

Those bastages come up the Susky in droves this time of year, eating so many fish and shitting everywhere.