Howdy Tweets,

I did my best to count the Great Blue Heron nests near Drumheller Fountain
on the UW Seattle campus today. Standing below them (on the E and W sides
of Rainier Vista) I counted a total 29 nests. From that vantage point I
couldn't tell if they were all occupied. Looking at them from the 3rd
floor of the chemistry building I could see adults sitting on nests, but
couldn't find many nests. Does anyone have experience with GBH nesting
habits that could comment?
Will they reuse nests from a previous season, or will those remain empty?
Do old nests ever last from previous seasons or do they usually blow down?
Does the number of nests correlate well with the number of breeding adult
birds or do they build extra nests?
BoNA online says that "nests are often reused for many years; maintained
throughout the nesting period with twigs gathered near the nest," which
seems to suggest that there wouldn't be many empty nests...

If all of those nests do produce young herons, UW is going to be a noisy
place pretty soon...hopefully the eagles aren't listening too closely
~Joe Meredith
Seattle
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