Sunday, June 26, 2011

The Rookery

I am linking up with  Mosaic Monday and Mellow Yellow Monday and World Bird Wednesday. This past week was a busy one and I was not able to do any of my blog post or visit many blogs. My husband's sister from Washington state was visiting us and we had a party celebrating my son's high school graduation. And on Wednesday evening we saw U2 in concert, they are one of my favorite bands and the concert was just fantastic.

A few weeks ago I took one of my birding friends to the nearby rookery I visit every year. This rookery has both the Black Crowned Night Herons and the Great Egrets. The nest are in trees that surround a man made lake and park in the middle of a busy city neighborhood.


Below my mosiac includes the juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron and the adult Black Crowned Night Heron.



I love this juvie Black Crowned Night Heron stretching his wings.


The adult Black Crowned Night Heron has a black crown and back, the chest is white.

The Great Egrets were also nesting in the trees along side the Black Crowned Night Herons.



Below is one of the many Great Egret nest at the rookery. How many of the big yellow bills do you see in this photo?  This momma looks like she has a lot of mouths to feed.


Besides the big yellow eyes, the Great Egret has a long yellow bill. The Great Egret  is a foot taller than the Snowy Egret and they have dark legs and feet.

I hope you enjoyed my post and photos on the rookery. To see more wonderful mosaic and photos, please visit Mosaic Monday  and Mellow Yellow Monday . To see more beautiful birds and photos please visit World Bird Wednesday.  Thanks to Mary for the mosiacs at Little Red House, Drowsey Monkey for Mellow Yellow Monday  and Springman  of Pine River Review for hosting these fun memes. I hope everyone has a great week and happy birding.

62 comments:

  1. Great photos. Such a great looking place to visit and watch the young fledge.

    dan

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  2. Sounds like an great week, Eileen! U2 is excellent in concert, I saw them way back when I was in college!
    Stunning shots, you have such unbelievable visitors to your area, just beautiful :)

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  3. beautiful shots. such silly looking babies to grow into such wonderfully graceful adults. :)

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  4. We are busy, but birds are not.

    We stop doing something, birds do not.

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  5. Love the photos. Looks like a fun place to be!

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  6. That's an amazing shot of the juvenile heron especially with its stretched wings! Herons and egrets must get along well because they seem to live together in the nature preserve where I visit. Congratulations to your son! Have a nice week.

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  7. Fantastic photo's Eileen. All such great shots of the birds.

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  8. Lovely to have a rookery so close to home. Fantastic photos:-)

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  9. I really like how you captured the juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron flying out from behind the tree branch. I also like your collages.
    I love U2's music.:)

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  10. All these photos are brilliant Eileen, though I love your juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron. You can definitely see the prehistoric in him. Just beautiful!

    I've always said there is nothing like a live performance. Sounds like you're having a great time with all the exciting family happenings in your family.

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  11. You took some amazing photos! We see a lot of herons in Florida...and nighthawks in the evenings! We're looking forward to the birds here in NC this summer! Today we saw bright Goldfinches! ♥

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  12. Not only did you have such a great week but you've shared some wonderful birdlife in your post. Great photos, but I did love the one of the juvenile Night Heron stretching!

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  13. Oh how I wish I could master taking pictures like you do! I truly enjoy them! Cathy

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  14. Sounds like you were very busy, congrats. to your son. Hope you get to slow down a bit this week. Great photos of the birds.

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  15. Wonderful rookery! It's always a delight to visit and see what you will be sharing with us. Sounds like you and your family have been busy. Congratulations to your son on his graduation. U2!!! Lucky girl! Have a great week.

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  16. Oh my daughter would envy you your U2 concert. What a lovely reason to be so busy.

    These shots are fantastic. They make it seem as if you were right there in the treetops or in the nest. So cool.

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  17. Wonderful shots of the birds and the mosaic is great.

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  18. Fantastic shots! We don't have those particular birds on the island - our herons are a bit different - I love the feathery head!

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  19. Congratulations to your son, Eileen! I also love U2 and saw them in Madison Square Garden a couple of years ago on the Vertigo tour ..they were fantastic!

    I would love to visit this riookery and see the nesting herons and great egrets. Fabulous photos!

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  20. What fun, a son graduating and off to college, I imagine. Congratulations to him - and Mom and Dad on accomplishing this milestone!

    The bird pictures are incredible. Nice to see the babies...so many of them for mama to feed.

    My Mellow Yellow Monday is at:

    http://rnsane.blogspot.com/2011/06/san-francisco-zoo-tarantulas-june-27.html

    Have a great week!

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  21. We belong to a naturalists group and our logo is the night heron. I have never actually seen one myself though. Wonderful photos. V

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  22. Lucky you!!! It's too hot for me to go birding right now. So, I'm enjoying [immensely I might add] your show of these beauties!!!

    Blue Plumbago is my photo post today. Do come join me if you can find time.

    Happy Monday.

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  23. Wonderful shots of the birds and their young in the nests.
    How wonderful to have such a nature reserve in the middle of a built up area.

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  24. Eileen, These pictures are just stunning! The owl and the herons are such large birds and you really captured their essence in these photos. Also want to send congrats to your son.

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  25. Hi Eileen, Fabulous! I love seeing any and all Herons and Egrets. Nice post with excellent pictures. Have a great day!

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  26. Oh my, these are all such a treat to see. I love birds and you have a beautiful collage of such lovely little feathered friends. BTW, Love your header, it's gorgeous.

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  27. Wow this is fantastic Eileen. You captured them well!

    MYM

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  28. Lovely post! Congrats to your son.
    I'm sure your Pacific NW company enjoyed the signts too! I hope to visit the heron rookery near where we stay here in Oregon (now that we're back for a while).

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  29. Your header, the lantanas looks very beautiful, but the smell, ( may be in New Zealand and South East Asia.) not so nice. They even call it KAI SEE FA, translated exactly as Chicken shit flower in Chinese, and Bunya Ayam Dait in Malay.

    I have my own story about this Lantana when a visiting friend went to the garden and plucked some to make a centre piece for the dining table.

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  30. I'm amazed with your pics, Eileen.
    What a wonderful place with lots of birds :)

    Thanks for stopping by. Others said that their spaghetti is yummy. I'll try it one day...

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  31. Lots of fun action shots of birds, well done Eileen.

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  32. These are marvelous. What beautiful birds!

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  33. I had to go back and look at the first picture after the mosaic. Wow! What a great picture! Congratulations to your son!

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  34. Fantastic photos of the Rookery! You visit so many wonderful places, and I always enjoy seeing what you've seen. Congrats to your son. We were just down in Washington for my grandson's graduation and party. It seems like just yesterday that he was a little tyke.

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  35. Such a lovely place for bird watching. Great shots.

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  36. the juvenile heron made me smile. It looks somewhat crazy. :)

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  37. You were nicely busy ! nevertheless you managed to post these beautiful pictures !

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  38. Fantastic set of shots Eileen.
    I love the Black Crowned Night Heron stretching his wings.

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  39. It took me a while to scroll off your phenomenal header photo! What a picture. Thanks for the tour of this great rookery, your guests must have been exilerated. What sights!

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  40. You are so fortunate to spot those birds, Eileen! Such a sight to enjoy, and you photographed them so well. The baby egrets look cute and really hungry! Am wishful to see some around here too.. :) Have a nice day, Eileen!

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  41. i love watching night herons and egrets, they have that very expressive eyes that look dramatic. you have such beautiful collection of photos of them, action and emotion filled.

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  42. A beautiful series of images of your wonderful wildlife Eileen many thanks for sharing them.

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  43. Lots of great shots here! The juvenile Night Heron is wonderful!

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  44. These birds are just gorgeous, and I don't get to see them often.

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  45. Great photos at the rookery. I really like your photo of the butterfly and flowers.

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  46. Great pictures and great collages Eileen. When I read your post title I thought I was about to see some Rooks, but the herons and egrets are much brighter and more exciting than drab old rooks.

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  47. Great capture!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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  48. You really do have some very nice birds in this post.

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  49. All great shots Eileen! The juvie Black-crowned Night-Heron is just awesome!

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  50. Your certainly have been busy! And your birds have been busy too raising their young! That must have been quite a day visiting the rookery. Do I count 7 Egrets in the nest?

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  51. Great shots Eileen, the Great Egrets are just amazing. I would love to see them in the wild. The juvie Black Crowned Night Heron is silly looking and cute all at the same time, I love that shot.

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  52. What a post, Eileen.

    And such a happy time for you,with your son's graduation and all.

    What fun pictures you managed to get of the heron peeping out from the shrubbery, and the header image is stunning. [ not a word I use a lot].
    I saw U2 last week for the first time, (Glastonbury) and don't share your passion there, sorry:-) They seemed so , well, not to put too fine a point on it, ..dated.

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  53. Oh those egrets in the nest are just so gorgeous. Great captures, especially the night-heron with its lit up wings.

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  54. Hi there - really nice shots.

    I used to go to a Grey Heron breeding site regularly - it had a smell that was rather difficult to deal with! Is this one the same!!

    Stewart M - Australia

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  55. JUST amazing to see all those babies getting ready to join the rest of us here on the Planet...making their way thru life..SWEET thanks for sharing this special place and your photos!

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  56. The BCNH is one of my fav birds so thank you, thank you for sharing your AwEsomE photos!!!!
    Congrats on your son's graduation and all the best to him!!
    meggs.

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  57. Fantastic photo series Eileen! The juvie Black-crowned Night heron is adorable.

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  58. Fantastic photos. Sometimes family gets in the way of birding - thank goodnes for that. Family is the most important.

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  59. Oh Eileen, what fabulous photos! It must have been amazing to see these birds in " person"!

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  60. Great shots from the Rookery! It's always fun to see the young ones! Congrats to your son on his graduation (and to you too!)

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  61. Lovely shots, Eileen. You'd never guess the place is surrounded by city - looks like a real oasis.

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  62. You are an excellent photographer... such excellent captures.
    The heron's capture is a winner.

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