New Great Blue Heron colony?

[Harry Legrand <harry.legrand@ncmail.net>]

Folks:
	Yesterday (June 18) I was working some of the CP&L lands at Shearon
Harris in s.w. Wake County, as part of the Wake County natural areas
inventory. I saw about 5 Great Blue Herons flush up from Harris Lake --
the cove I worked is covered in the exotic week Ludwigia uruguayensis.
That seemed like a lot of herons for mid-June, and I figured that maybe
there is a nesting colony nearby.

I spent the next two hours working some slopes away from the lake. As I
started to approach a creek, I heard what sounded like squealing pigs,
or a dog fight. It was an ugly, creepy sound that I didn't want any part
of! Then, I noticed that the "hog farm" was coming from the tops of tall
trees along the creek. Ah! There were 10 or more herons and nests in a
huge loblolly pine! I ended up finding at least 32 nests, in about 5-6
trees. Most were in tall, living loblollies. Several were in living
hardwoods, and one was in a dead tree. There was "snow" carpeting the
ground and shrubs beneath the pines -- tree bark that had been pooped on
near the nest and become white, and flaked off and fallen to the ground,
like snow. 

The young were full grown, heavily streaked below. Young and adults were
everywhere on the tree limbs and standing on nests. There could have
been a few more than 32 nests I counted. I'm aware of a few small
nesting sites in Wake -- along Crabtree Creek at the Buckeye Trail
inside Raleigh, near the Neuse River below the Falls Lake dam, and at
Greenview Farm. Maybe one or two others in the county?

The nest colony is along Jim Branch, just above Harris Lake. In the
DeLorme atlas, it is on Page 61, extreme upper right, about where the
letter "B" in Burt is located. By the way, there is no community here,
called Burt or anything else -- just forest!  

The two bridge crossings of Buckhorn Creek south of the heronry are good
bird spots. Both roads are dirt, and there is little traffic -- a rarity
for Wake County. I heard 3 Kentucky Warblers yesterday, quite a good
total. Prothonotary, N. Parula, Hooded, Ovenbird, La. Waterthrush, etc.
are also present. There are lots of clearcuts in this part of the county
-- plenty of Chats and Prairie WArblers. I've yet to hear a Bachman's
Sparrow anywhere down there this season, despite lots of listening in
clearcuts on CP&L property and adjacent timberlands. It's not for lack
of habitat! They used to occur in this general area, mainly in Chatham
County. The clearcuts there are too old and thick, but there are plenty
of newer ones in the general area.
-- 
Harry LeGrand
NC Natural Heritage Program
1615 MSC
Raleigh, NC 27699-1615
(919) 715-8687 (work)
FAX: 919-715-3085
e-mail: harry.legrand@ncmail.net