[SBB] love and war among the palms...

[Chuq Von Rospach <[[email protected]]>]

I only had a quick chance to run out at lunch today, so I headed out  
to the duck pond to check out the herons and egrets. Good number of  
both, mostly complaining to each other, and they've all put on their  
best sunday clothes.

The one strange behavior of the day: an egret standing on a partial  
nest, and vocalizing like crazy. Every couple of minutes, he'd start  
yelling and bashing his beak into the palm fronds next to him. Then  
he'd stop, stare, look around, make some more noises, then do it again.

After about three rounds of this, he finally made a noise that I  
swear sounded like a egret equivalent of a frustrated "hell with it",  
and flew off. I happened to still be watching the tree when about two  
minutes later, out popped a head! A balck-crowned night heron peeked  
out, and looked in all directions, then popped back in behind the  
palm. He then came out again -- with a few sticks in his mouth.

looks like he's been building his nest by borrowing the best sticks  
from his neighbors, and the egret caught him -- but the heron got  
into a place the egret couldn't follow. Thus the angry "just wait  
until I get my hands on you" bit from the egret, until he gave up and  
moved on...

One of the herons I saw today wasn't colored -- are the females  
plain? (sibley's doesn't say). Not sure if it was the first female in  
the area, or a juvenile hanging out (I'll have pictures tomorrow).  
Other than that, it was very high tide and very quiet, even on the pond.


-- 
Chuq Von Rospach, Architech
[[email protected]] -- http://chuqui.typepad.com/

The first rule of holes: If you are in one, stop digging.



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