HERON Volunteer View: Great Blue Herons Caught on Video

Photo by Deb DuttonJune is when nestlings appear in most great blue heron colonies in Maine.  In Maine,

HERON Volunteer View: FOOD FIGHT

[caption id="attachment_662" align="alignleft" width="239" caption="An adult great blue heron arrives ready to feed its nestlings.

Heron Watchers Needed

[caption id="attachment_545" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="In April 2009 at this colony in downeast Maine, ice-out is not yet complete and the herons have yet to return.

Sebasticook Valley Middle School Outdoors Club Adopts Great Blue Heron Colony

[caption id="attachment_463" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Logan Labree, Dalton McCaughlin and Rachel Bates measure and record the diameter of a great blue heron nest tree while Skip Walsh (in background) searches for another nest."]

Nondirectional Wandering Brings Southern Birds North to Maine

[caption id="attachment_444" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Cattle egret observed feeding on grasshoppers on Bailey Island in Harpswell.

Heron Trash Can Be a Researcher's Treasure

[caption id="attachment_380" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Remains found beneath heron nests.

Nestlings Abound

[caption id="attachment_344" align="alignleft" width="241" caption="Five nestlings, all around 4-5 weeks old."][/caption] [Be sure to click on a photo for a larger view.] Can you imagine raising 5 children in a 1-room apartment?  For great blue herons, it’s not all that uncommon.  In g

Still on the Lookout for Wading Bird Colonies

[caption id="attachment_332" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="What we see from the air! There is an active great blue heron colony on this island.

Land Trust Sponsors Program on Damariscove's Sea Birds

      [caption id="attachment_290" align="alignleft" width="295" caption="Two black-crowned night-herons on Damariscove Island."]

Keep Watch for Early Birds

It is March 2nd, and although I received 3 inches of snow 2 nights ago at my home, it was wet and heavy snow and had melted by noon.  The wind is blowing, but it is relatively warm air, sending me a hint of spring with every gust.  Birds are starting to move.  Recent observations of FOY (that’s “first of year” in case you’re not a birder) osprey and turkey vultures remind me that great blue herons will return to Maine within a few weeks’ time.  If my memory is correct, the first great blue heron that was reported on the Maine Birds List in 2009 was on March 12th in Brunswick.  Two