Hi Bill and Tweeters,



I was at the Edmonds Marina yesterday (Memorial Day) from 5:30 to 6:30p during the break in the weather and was able to confirm through photograph that there are indeed FOUR BABIES in the GREAT BLUE HERON nest!



While I was there, various opinions were circulating amongst onlookers as to how many babies there are. To the eye through my binoculars and through my lens, I only saw THREE babies. But when I got home and started looking at my photographs, I saw with delighted surprise the small but alert-looking runt's head lower in the nest than his/her siblings! FOUR orange and blue bills, plus a bright yellow eye with each bill, clearly visible in a couple of my images!



When I initially arrived at the marina at about 5:30p, the babies were standing up and squawking at the parent-in-residence (I want to read up on GBH nesting habits - is it Mom on the nest?). The three strongest babies were clearly visible from head to chest or lower, but I was far away so my images are so-so. (I'm also relatively new to digital SLR and to this lens.) By the time I moved to a closer viewing spot, the little ones had settled down (though their noisy chatter did not subside for quite some time). From then on for the rest of the hour that I observed, they occasionally poked up a head or two or rearranged themselves a bit, but did not rise to feed.



I've posted some of my better images to Flickr for your viewing enjoyment. I've been so excited all day to get home tonight to be able to share what I saw! http://www.flickr.com/photos/18600129 at N05/sets/72157624061688545/



Bill, I hope I didn't ruin the surprise for you - hopefully you've already confirmed via your own images just how many nestlings there are. :)


Cheers and happy birding,



~Christy Jobe

Kenmore

christyrj_at_hotmail


> Message: 18
> Date: Mon, 31 May 2010 22:46:16 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Bill Anderson <billandersonbic at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Tweeters] Edmonds Marina Hersons
> To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
> Message-ID: <647901.38260.qm at web52501.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> Today I thought I saw a fourth baby heron in the nest on the inner breakwater west of Anthony's. I will be able to tell better when I get my desktop computor back and can download the photos I took. I got a good look at what I think is the runt and the largest baby in the nest. There is quite a size difference between the two.
> Bill Anderson; Edmonds, WA.

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