Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) Nesting Building
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) pairs nest at a local SouthCoast rookery that Turtle Journal has the pleasure to monitor each spring. The first herons arrived this year on March 21st; see Great Blue Heron Returns to SouthCoast Rookery. Â
The Turtle Journal team observed courting behavior at the rookery on March 24th; see Love on a Treetop: Courting Great Blue Herons.
Ospreys arrived on March 23rd.  They promptly evicted a heron pair from the prime nesting tree, and then aggressively began to harass  roosting heron pairs; see Osprey Arrives at SouthCoast Rookery.  While we normally monitor three or four nesting pairs of great blue herons at this site, only a single pair remains in the rookery this year … at the furthest tree from the ospreys in the rookery copse.
When we visited the site on Monday morning, May 12th, we observed this remaining pair of great blue herons engaged in nesting building and reinforcement. Â The male swooped down to adjacent trees, collected suitable branches and twigs, and brought them back to the nest for the female to carefully set in place.
The aerial gymnastics and treetop ballet of these very large, pterodactyl-like birds are truly awe inspiring.
Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) Nest Building