Great Blue Heron Chicks Hatch in Marion Rookery
Turtle Journal has monitored the Great Blue Heron rookery in Marion on the SouthCoast of Massachusetts since early April. See Great Blue Heron Rookery on Massachusetts South Coast. This afternoon, in relentless rain and dense mist, Sue Wieber Nourse spotted hatched chicks in two adjacent heron nests. The babies were noisy and demanding; the adults patient and providing.
Great Blue Heron Hatchlings
After a period of intense feeding, the chicks settled down for a bit and the adults spent a few moments grooming. But with insistent babies in the nest, nothing lasts for long and the chicks soon were pleading again for attention. While Don acknowledges that his video is a bit shaky due to extreme distance from the nest and terrible weather conditions, the clip does provide a good sense of the chicks’ early days.
Adult Great Blue Heron Presents Small Fish to Chicks
As Turtle Journal observed these two nests today, we discovered that the adult would occasionally offer small fish to the chicks by waving it from its beak and then laying it next to the babies in the nest. The team will continue to monitor these hatchlings in the days ahead … hopefully under some bright sunshine for a better set of documentary pictures and clips.