People were talking about Coon Rapids Dam on the Minnesota birding listservs. The great blue herons were returning to the rookery and there was a great horned owl using one of the nests. From my understanding, the owl has been there for the last few years–there’s a plethora of nests for it to choose from but I’ve never made it over to see it. So I took a few minutes to go check out the rookery.
Some of the great blue herons were actively building nests, others were kind fluffed out as if they were too cold to want to deal with it. I couldn’t tell right away which nest had the great horned owl. I followed the directions to try and see the fourth one from the right and all I saw were herons.
I systematically checked each nest. Heron…heron…heron…heron…oh hey:
You’re not a heron! That’s a little red-tailed hawk head! And the great blue herons don’t seem to care. Granted, red-tails are a mighty hunter, but adult heron probably isn’t high on their prey list. Young herons would be a possibility…but I wonder if red-tails do not like the fishy taste? The red-tail would have been in that nest before the herons arrived, so the herons are choosing to nest there despite the hawk. I wonder if the hawk has nested there before? I wonder if the hawk built its own nest or just refurbished an old heron nest?
I found some birders nearby and asked if they knew which nest had the great horned owl and they pointed to a cluster of heron nests away from the active clump that had no herons on them whatsoever. There in the center was a great horned owl. This cluster of nests was further back and I found it interesting that the herons nested next to the red-tail seemingly without any problems but gave plenty of space to the great horned–the owl would go for adult and young herons. I remember when I went to a rookery a few years ago and we found the night-heron remains with a big fat owl pellet in the middle. I wondered too if the early returning herons get the better nest spot farther away from the owls and if the later ones would be forced to take a nest next to the great horneds? Either way, the other active nests are in easy view of the great horns and I’m sure the owls will take a few nestlings from them. The red-tail is in easy view of the great horned…I wonder how that territory negotiation is going? The owl would have started nesting in January, the red-tail in early March, and now the herons. I wish I had more time to spend and watch the negotiations.
I also noted that almost every wire stabilizer had a staring next to it singing territory song. The holes that the wires go through are wide enough to easily fit a starling and the area on the inside must make a snug nest. Such enterprising birds.
Cool photos!
Red-tails and GH Owls will eat each other’s nestlings given the opportunity, but GH owls have also been known to take down adult red-tails. It would definitely be interesting to see how the territory works out between those two…
Either way, if I were a heron, I would not want to nest near either of those!
Er…I could be wrong, but I don’t think the orange balls have anything to do with power line “stabilization”. I think they’re to make the lines visible to small aircraft. You tend to see them a lot near small, municipal airports.
Over here herons live in heronries. It is only the rooks that live in a rookery.
We’ve got a newly established heronry near our place. The herons look like pterodactyls when they fly so low and near.
Those herons are beautiful!
The ones that used to camp out on the lamp post outside my house in Holland were nowhere so dashing.
Wonderful posting, Birdchick. I’ve seen a few small rookeries here in Puget Sound even though we have many GBHs – you’d think we’d have very large ones like you showed in your posting. Maybe we do and I haven’t heard about them.
I’m heading to California tomorrow and there is a rookery at Elkhorn Slough National Wildlife Refuge. I’ll “chick” it out while I’m down there.
First we want to say hello, we have enjoyed reading your blog. We had the privilege of visiting the Coon Rapids Dam a few weeks back. We also noticed the nests and were wondering what birds had built the nests. Mystery Explained! It is good to see that they belong to a variety of birds.
When we were out there we saw a Bald Eagle, Common Mergansers and a few others. That day provided a good blogging info. We look forward to reading your blog.
Keep your eyes out for birds.
For AKA Bird Nerd .. probably by far the largest Heronry in Puget Sound is up here in Anacortes on Marchs Point, with several hundred nests. You can’t really see them because they nest mainly in maples, alders and cottonwoods which are hidden in a lot of taller doug. firs. But, from time to time a lot of birds will rise up out of there and circle and fool a round and then all settle back in. This year the birds are late, not yet back in there, and not too sure why except it has been cold. There is a live web-cam in the heronry and go to the PadillaBay Reserve web-site to get it. Once the eggs hatch it is really something to see!
Sharon .. in this big heronry here there is a huge Eagle nest of many years. The thinking is that those eagles have that as their territory and thus keep other preying birds away. They do get some Heron but probably actually wind up protecting many more. That may be what is going on there at Coon Rapids. I guess your birds there are migratory and just coming back for the summer. Ours are resident, they live in the fields all winter and go to the nests about now!
The owl tufts in that photo look like a cat’s ears. I love your captions!
We “had” a rookery in our area, but I sadly noticed that the main tree blew down this winter, I am curious to see if they will rebuild or move on. checked today and there were redtails working on one of the old nests. There is a GH owl pair that has been hanging out, but no eggs or babies, must be too young yet, and one heron was along the river bank in the area, still a little early here for them, I photographed them here at the end of April last year.. thanks for sharing