Update on the Cub Creek Heronry in the Chapel Hill Count Circle

["Johnston, Alan G." <agj@rti.org>]

This morning (May 25) Patsy Bailey and I checked on the progress of the
Great Blue Heron nests at the Cub Creek Heronry at the northern end of
Jordan Lake in the Chapel Hill Count Circle.  We had a wonderful time
studying the nests with a scope and counting 88 young herons, along with 8
adults.  Most of the adults seem to be away (fishing) at this time of the
morning (7:30 to 9:30 a.m.). 

We located 41 nests this time (whereas 44 nests were counted on May 6th).
Several nests may have been hidden by the leaves which have come out.  Nine
of the nests seemed to be empty, but we are not sure.  There could have been
some eggs or small chicks not yet visible, and the adults could have been
away.  On 1 nest we could see only 1 adult.  The other 31 nests all had
young birds which were visible through the scope.  We also saw 1 adult at 7
of these nests, usually in the process of bringing food (fish) back to the
young birds.  As on the previous visit, the young herons in each nest seemed
to be of the same age, but the nests varied widely in the stage of
development of the young birds.  We saw two nests with very young birds,
obviously in their first week, fuzzy white little things with scrawny necks.
In 4 nests the young birds seemed a week or two old, but still had scraggly
white topknots.  In 6 nests, the white topknots had turned all dark, but the
birds were still noticeably younger than the next group.  In 19 nests the
young birds had their full juvenile plumage and looked ready to fledge, but
in no case were they making any moves to indicate that they were ready to
leave the nest.

The standard brood size seemed to be 4.  We saw 4 young birds in 12 nests, 3
young in 7 nests, 2 young in 7 nests, and 1 young bird in five nests.  Of
course we were looking up at the nests with the scope and our binoculars,
and may well have missed young birds that were sitting down and not visible.

This is a great spot to watch herons, if you don't get distracted by all the
Red-headed Woodpeckers and other fine birds flying around.

Alan Johnston
Chapel Hill, NC
agj@rti.org